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BV4211  .P54  1892 
Pierson,  Arthur  T.  (Arthur 
Tappan),  1837-1911. 
Divine  art  of  preaching. 
Lectures  delivered  at  the 
"Pastor's 


THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 


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LECTURES 

Delivered   at  the  "Pastor's   College,"  connected    with   the 

Metropolitan    Tabernacle,    London,    England, 

KKOM  January  to  JirNE,  1892. 


BY 
V 
ARTHUR    T.   PIERSON. 


H 


NEW  YORK : 
THE  BAKER  AND  TAYLOR  CO. 

740  and  742  Broadway 


Copyright,  1892, 

BV 

THE   BAKER  AND  TAVLOR  COMPANY. 


THK  MERSHON  COMPANY  PRESS, 
KAIIWAV,  N.  J. 


BeMcation. 


To   my  gifted  and  generous  friend  and  true  yokefellow. 
Pastor  James  Archer  Spiirgeon,  President  of  the  Pastor's 
College,  at  whose  suggestion  these  plain  talks  on  preach- 
ing were  given,  and  by  whose  constant  and  cordial 
co-operation  and  courteous  consideration  every  bur- 
den tvas  lightened  during  eight  eventful  months 
of  mingled  sorrow  and  joy  at  the  Metropoli- 
tan    Tabernacle,    these    lectures   are    with 
brotherly  love  inscribed  by  the  Author. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER 

A  Prefatory  Word  of  Explanation, 
Introduction,       ..... 
I.  The  Sermon  as  an  Intellectual  Product 
II.  The  Preacher  among  His  Books, 

III.  The  Preacher  with  His  Themes, 

IV.  The  Preacher  Training  His  Memory, 
V.  The  Twin-Laws  of  the  Sermon, 

VI.  Types  of  Sermon-Structure, 
VII.  The  Preacher  among  the  Mysteries, 
VIII.  The  Preacher  among  the  Critics,   . 
IX.  The  Preacher  with  His  Bible, 
X.  The  Preacher  in  His  Pulpit,    . 
XI.  The  Preacher  among  Snares, 
XII.  The  Preacher  among  His  People,    . 
XIII.  The     Preacher     Communing     with     the 
Spirit, 


Vll 

I 

7 
13 
18 

24 

35 
59 
71 
83 

lOI 

112 
123 

140 


A  PREFATORY  WORD  OF 
EXPLANATION. 


EING  unexpectedly  called  to  service 
at  the  Metropolitan  Tabernacle, 
London,  during  the  illness  and 
after  the  departure  of  the  beloved  pastor, 
Charles  Haddon  Spurgeon,  from  October, 
1891,  to  June,  1892,  it  became  a  part  of  my 
privilege  to  speak  from  week  to  week  before 
that  intelligent  and  most  responsive  body  of 
students  then  in  the  Pastor's  College  founded 
by  Mr.  Spurgeon. 

I  had  left  in  America  all  memoranda  of 
every  sort  which  might  have  aided  in  this 
part  of  my  work,  as  this  sort  of  service  was 
wholly  unforeseen  by  me;  and  I  could  only 
speak  with  such  hasty  preparations  as  the 
severe  strain  of  other  duties  allowed.  These 
lectures  lay  no  claim  to  completeness  either 
of  matter  or  style.  But  the  interest  which 
they  awakened  led  to  their  reproduction, 
after  delivery,  by  the  aid  of  a  stenographer. 


X  ^  PREFATORY  WORD. 

If  any  to  whom  the  Word  of  the  Lord  is. 
precious  in  these  days,  when  there  are  so 
few  true  seers  of  God  to  whom  the  open 
vision  is  ^Mven,  find  herein  any  help  to  the 
preaching  which  is  born  of  deep  conviction, 
and  baptized  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  one 
desire  of  my  heart  is  fulfilled. 

Arthur  T.  Pierson.  . 

Metropolitan  Tahkrnacle, 
London, /?/;/<•,  1892. 


INTRODUCTION. 


REACHING  is  a  divine  art,  and 
therefore  the  finest  of  the  fine 
arts.  There  is,  about  the  logical 
structure  of  a  true  sermon,  that  which 
suggests  all  that  is  most  beautiful  in 
architecture;  about  the  elaboration  of  its 
rhetorical  features,  all  that  is  most  symmet- 
rical in  sculpture;  and  about  the  use  of  im- 
agination in  illustration  and  metaphor,  all 
that  is  most  fascinating  in  painting;  while 
oratory,  itself  a  fine  art,  suggests  that  other 
kindred  art  of  music  to  which  it  is  so  closely 
allied  in  the  utilization  of  all  that  is  most 
attractive  and  persuasive,  melodious  and 
martial,  in  the  human  voice.  As  Paul 
Veronese  said  of  painting,  preaching  is  "a 
gift  from  God." 

The  essence  of  a  sermon  is  sermo — a 
speech,  spoken  in  behalf  of,  and  in  the  name 
of  God ;  in  other  words,  it  is  in  the  best 
sense  a  divine  oration.  The  ethics  of  ety- 
mology, always   so    instructive,    suggest    in 


Xll  INTRODUCTION. 

that  word,  oratory,  which  is  appHed  both  to 
prayer  and  to  effective  speech,  that  in  such 
a  sermonic  oration  there  is  imph'ed  always 
the  prayer  element  and  factor. 

An  oration  is  a  speech,  or  discourse,  ad- 
dressed to  hearers  with  reference  to  a  defi- 
nite end  or  result,  namely,  conviction  and 
persuasion.  What  we  call  eloquence,  is 
simply  the  means  to  that  end,  and  covers 
all  the  conditions  of  such  effective  utter- 
ance. The  true,  divine  orator  will  seek  to 
make  himself  master,  therefore,  of  all  real 
helps  to  his  high  art,  whether  they  pertain 
to  his  physical,  mental,  moral,  or  spiritual 
being. 

The  first  effective  sermon  of  proper  Chris- 
tian history — that  of  Peter  on  the  Day  of 
Pentecost — was  in  some  sense  a  model  for 
all  subsequent  preaching.  In  Acts  ii.  40  we 
are  told,  "with  many  other  words  did  he 
testify  and  exhort."  Previously  there  is 
recorded  the  outline  of  Peter's  argument, 
which  consisted  mainly  of  a  presentation  of 
predictive  prophecy  as  fulfilled  in  Christ's 
character  and  career.  May  we  not  there- 
fore find  here,  in  this  one  verse,  a  kind  of 
inspired  outline  of  the  elements  which  enter 
into  a   normal  sermon?     How   marvelously 


INTRODUCTION.  XIU 

complete,  at  least,  is  the  suggestive  analysis, 
which  thus  makes  a  sermon  to  consist  of  an 
argument,  a  testimony,  and  an  exhortation ! 
The  argument,  or  logical  presentation  of 
fact  and  truth,  lays  the  foundation;  then 
upon  this  basis  is  built  the  confirmatory 
witness  of  experience;  and  both  find  their 
crowning  completeness  and  ultimate  object 
in  the  exhortation  which  moves  the  hearer 
to  repentance  and  faith.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary, it  may  not  always  be  wise,  that  each  of 
these  parts  of  the  sermon  shall  be  obvious 
or  announced;  but  they  should  be  present, 
whether  latent  or  patent ;  and  when  they 
are  there,  the  sermon  appeals  to  the  whole 
man.  The  argument  addresses  his  reason 
and  intellect ;  the  testimony  witnesses  to 
his  feeling  and  heart ;  and  the  exhortation 
appeals  to  the  will  and  choice. 

It  is  a  first  requisite  of  the  preacher, 
therefore,  that  he  shall  magnify  his  office. 
The  appreciation  of  the  dignity  of  his  art, 
the  high  character  of  a  true  sermon,  the 
eternal  issues  that  hang  upon  its  prepara- 
tion and  delivery,  cannot  but  impel  him  to 
studious  and  prayerful  fitting  of  himself  for 
the  conscientious  and  successful  discharge 
of    his  exalted  office.     No    schools    should 


XIV  INTRODUCTIOy. 

command  so  high  an  order  of  instruction,  or 
inspire  so  careful  and  devout  a  diligence  on 
the  part  of  the  student,  as  the  schools  of 
theology.  The  preacher,  as  God's  ambassa- 
dor, is  a  mediator  between  God  and  men, 
and  slovenliness  or  even  sluggishness  in  get- 
ting one's  self  ready  for  such  service  is  a 
fundamental  if  not  unpardonable  fault ;  it 
reveals  a  lack  not  only  of  conscience,  but  of 
competency  for  such  a  holy  trust.  A  hal- 
lowed atmosphere  should  surely  pervade  the 
halls  where  men  study  the  saving  truth  of 
God  with  reference  to  its  use  in  saving  souls. 

The  consciousness  that  the  speaker  is 
moving  an  audience  to  think  and  feel  and 
choose  in  sympathy  with  himself  is  an  in- 
teresting and  fascinating  experience — but 
it  is  something  awfully  responsible,  for  such 
a  speaker  is  touching  the  mysterious  springs 
of  all  character,  conduct,  and  destiny. 

It  would  be  dififlcult  to  improve  upon  the 
simple  analysis  of  the  sermon  already  bor- 
rowed from  the  inspired  word  ;  for  it  hints 
the  conditions  of  power  in  the  preacher,  as 
well  as  the  hearer.  How  can  the  preacher 
use  argument  as  a  mighty  weapon,  unless  he 
is  himself  a  logical  thinker  and  has  mastered 
his    theme?     Only   intelligent   acquaintance 


INTRODUCTION.  XV 

with  his  subject,  and  the  plain  path  whereby 
he  has  first  been  himself  convinced,  can  fit 
him  to  address  the  intelligence  of  his  audi- 
ence and  to  compel  his  hearer  to  think  too, 
and  admit  the  truth  to  the  sacred  shrine  of 
his  own  convictions.  To  give  his  testimony 
implies  that  the  truth  he  preaches  has  laid 
hold  on  his  own  heart's  affections,  and  so 
enabled  him  to  utter  the  language  of  exper- 
imental certainty,  to  speak  what  he  knows 
and  testify  what  he  has  seen.  And  a  true 
exhortation  implies  that  he  feels  such  a  deep 
passion  for  souls,  that  are  outside  of  the  safe 
position  of  believers,  as  that  he  yearns  to 
rescue  them,  by  persuading  them  to  lay  hold 
of  the  hope  set  before  them  in  the  gospel. 
Surely  such  a  preacher  will  be  a  man  in 
earnest,  and  will  win  an  earnest  hearing, 
compelling  attention  by  his  contagious  zeal 
and  enthusiasm. 

In  the  chapters  which  follow,  the  main 
purpose  is  to  make  emphatic  three  great 
requisites  of  convincing  and  persuasive 
preaching;  first,  a  proper  use  of  the  intel- 
lectual faculties;  secondly,  a  diligent  culture 
of  spiritual  power;  and,  thirdly,  a  reverent 
faith  in  the  message  as  divine  and  authori- 
tative.    Accordingly  the  sermon  is  treated  as 


X  V 1  I,V  TROD  UC  TION. 

an  intellectual  product,  and  as  the  fruit  of 
the  Holy  Spirit's  illumination  and  sanctifica- 
tion ;  and  somewhat  is  added  as  to  the  true 
estimate  in  which  the  preacher  must  hold 
the  Word  of  God,  whence  he  derives  both 
his  commission  and  his  credentials.  If  any 
matter  introduced  in  the  discussion  may 
appear  irrelevant,  it  has  in  the  author's  mind 
a  relation  more  or  less  intimate  to  the  full 
equipment  of  the  preacher  for  his  work. 
And,  if  no  other  chapter  be  attentively  read, 
the  reader  is  besought  to  bestow  no  little 
thought  on  that  which  treats  of  spiritual 
homiletics,  and  which  is  the  outcome  of  the 
most  sacred  and  secret  history  of  the  writer. 
To  do  however  little  to  secure  a  new  era 
of  pulpit  power — of  real  spiritual  efTective- 
ness  in  preaching — of  such  divine  pungency, 
fervor,  force,  as  caused  three  thousand  hear- 
ers on  the  day  of  Pentecost  to  be  pricked  in 
their  hearts  and  earnestly  to  ask,  "Men  and 
brethren,  what  shall  we  do?" — this  is  the 
humble  errand  on  which  these  unpretending 
suggestions  are  sent  forth. 


THE 

DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE   SERMON  AS  AN   INTELLECTUAL 
PRODUCT. 

T  has  been  said  that  sermons  are 
either  "born,  or  made,  or  given." 
If  so,  we  shall  now  treat  the  sermon 
as  made,  as  the  product  of  the  preacher's 
mind  and  heart,  the  creation  of  his  fine  art, 
and  from  the  human  side. 

To  all  sermon-makers  one  great  maxim 
may  be  given  :  cultivate  the  homiletic  habit ; 
accustom  yourself  to  the  construction  of  ser- 
mon outlines;  study  analysis  and  synthesis; 
learn  by  patient  study  and  practice  to  find 
out  what  is  in  a  text,  to  mark  every  sugges- 
tion which  it  contains,  and  to  arrange  these 
suggestions    in    symmetrical    and    effective 


^         THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

order.  We  add  a  second  maxim  scarcely 
less  important,  namely :  cultivate  the  prac- 
tical habit.  Have  a  practical  end  in  view 
always,  and  let  everything  bend  to  that  result. 
Dr.  Candlish  said  of  a  sermon  which  was  sub- 
mitted to  his  criticism  :  "This  discourse  con- 
sists of  an  introduction  which  might  have 
been  spared,  a  second  part  which  docs  not 
deal  with  the  text ;  and  a  conclusion  which 
concludes  nothing" — except,  we  suppose, 
the  discourse.  Contrast  with  this  the 
solemn  testimony  of  Robertson  of  Irvine, 
who  wrote:  "On  looking  back  on  my  minis- 
try I  cannot  charge  myself  with  ever  having 
uttered  in  the  pulpit  one  word  I  did  not 
believe;  and  I  never  spoke  frivolously.  If 
I  were  to  express  in  one  word  what  has  been 
the  great  aim  of  my  ministry  it  would  be 
this:  to  lead  all  the  human  race  to  cry,  "O 
Lamb  of  God,  have  mercy  upon  us!" 

Still  a  third  maxim  belongs  with  the  other 
two,  and  on  this  we  now  expand  somewhat : 
cultivate  the  methodical  habit.  There  are 
manifest  advantages  of  method  in  all  work 
that  is  to  be  thoroughly  done,  and  sermon 
preparation  is  certainly  no  exception. 

Paul  says,  in  I  Cor.  xiv.  40:  "Let  all 
things    be    done    decentl)'    and    in    order." 


SERMONS  AS  INTELLECTUAL  PRODUCTS.  3 

The  word  "decently"  has  reference  to  a 
good  appearance,  what  is  pleasing  to  look 
upon,  comely,  decorous  ;  and  the  word  trans- 
lated "order"  means  arrangement,  regular 
disposition,  as  in  a  series  or  succession.  As 
will  be  seen,  one  of  these  words  naturally 
suggests  the  aesthetical  element,  and  the 
other  the  methodical  element. 

The  great  principle  of  sermon  prepara- 
tions, as  of  all  other  works  for  Christ,  is,  do 
your  best.  Nothing  should  be  done  in  slov- 
enly fashion  that  is  done  for  the  Master. 
We  should  take  care  even  of  our  personal 
appearance,  that  it  should  be  cleanly  and 
seemly,  while  avoiding  the  finical  extreme 
of  undue  punctiliousness  and  ceremonious- 
ness.  An  unkempt  person,  finger  nails  that 
are  in  mourning,  uncombed  hair,  unbrushed 
garments,  soiled  linen — none  of  these  things 
are  to  be  overlooked  as  hindrances  to  useful- 
ness and  service.  We  should  train  not  only 
our  morals  but  our  manners,  for,  as  the 
Latin  mores  suggests,  there  is  an  intimate 
connection  between  the  two.  We  may  ven- 
ture perhaps  to  disregard  some  of  the  arbi- 
trary regulations  of  a  formal  etiquette,  but 
we  should  never  disregard  principles  of 
equity  and  courtesy. 


4         THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

So,  in  our  handiwork,  even  our  penman- 
ship should  be  legible,  clean,  free  from 
interlineations  and  corrections,  blots  and 
blotches.  An  illegible  hand  is  oftentimes 
the  occasion  of  much  provocation  and  an- 
noyance to  those  who  are  compelled  to  read 
our  letters.  With  regard  to  composition, 
we  should  frame  a  sentence  in  our  mind  sub- 
stantially before  we  put  it  upon  paper,  and 
habituate  ourselves  to  writing  in  the  first 
instance  as  we  desire  a  sentence  to  stand. 
If  a  carpenter  is  making  a  joint  he  cannot 
venture  to  cut  carelessly  into  the  wood, 
thinking  that,  if  at  the  first  the  joint  does 
not  fit  closely,  he  can  more  perfectly  adjust 
it  afterward.  If  the  tenon  is  too  small  for 
the  mortise,  how  can  the  joint  be  subse- 
quently made  perfect?  The  sculptor  can- 
not afford  to  chip  the  marble  carelessly. 
He  may  cut  too  deep  for  the  symmetry  of 
his  statue,  and  the  marble  is  more  easily 
chipped  off  than  replaced.  Think  as  well  as 
you  can,  and  then  express  as  perfectly  what 
you  think.  Write  as  you  want  the  writing 
to  stand,  leaving  no  room  for  subsequent 
corrections;  if  you  leave  room  for  them  on 
3'our  paper  you  will  leave  room  for  them  in 
your  mind.     It  is  always  therefore  best  to 


SERMONS  A  S  INTELLECTUAL  PROD UCTS.  5 

work  up  to  power,  in  everything  that  you 
do.  Let  the  fullness  of  your  mental,  moral, 
and  spiritual  manhood  enter  into  all  your 
work. 

Never  overlook  quality  in  quantity.  It  is 
not  how  much  work  you  do,  but  how  good 
work  you  do,  which  is  the  all-important  mat- 
ter. A  little  well  done  rather  than  a  great 
deal  ill  done  should  be  the  law  of  life.  Any 
first-class  piece  of  work  lasts.  One  such 
piece  of  work  has  oftentimes  made  one's 
reputation.  It  was  an  eminent  artist.  Sir 
Joshua  Reynolds,  that  said  to  a  student : 
"Finish  one  picture,  and  you  are  a  painter." 
A  good  quality  of  work  has  a  permanent 
effect  upon  the  workman.  There  is  some- 
thing elevating  to  the  man  himself  in  an 
exalted  product  of  his  own  hand  and  brain. 
His  success  stimulates  him  to  still  more  suc- 
cessful effort,  and  something  well  done 
encourages  him  to  attempt  something  that 
shall  be  even  better  done ;  whereas  the  effect 
of  careless  work  is  to  habituate  one  to  care- 
lessness and  to  make  one  satisfied  with  an 
inferior  product. 

Again,  a  first-class  piece  of  work  is  of 
course  of  larger  value  to  others.  It  helps 
them  to  a  better  ideal  and  to  a  more  exalted 


6  THE  DIVINE  ART  OE  PREACHING. 

real,  in  their  own  character,  life,  and  career. 
The  world  is  in  need  of  the  best  that  we  can 
do,  but  poor  work  is  a  damage  alike  to  the 
workman  and  to  the  world. 

It  may  be  well  to  apply  these  principles 
in  two  directions  mainU-.  First,  to  the 
reading  of  books,  and  secondly,  to  the  com- 
posing of  sermons. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE   PREACHER  AMONG   HIS   BOOKS. 


S  to  the  reading  of  books,  its  object 
is  fivefold. 

I.  First  to  gather  information  as 
to  facts  and  truths ;  to  store  the  memory 
with  valuable  material.  That  word  "infor- 
mation" is  etymologically  suggestive.  In- 
form-ation  implies  something  taking  form 
in  the  mind,  symmetrically  arranged,  crys- 
tallized, not  hastily,  superficially,  and  cha- 
otically accumulated,  but  built  up  into  form 
and  proportion.  It  implies  classification, 
orderly  arrangement. 

2.  The  second  object  of  reading  is  intel- 
lectual quickening,  the  projection  of  lines  of 
thought  upon  which  the  mind  may  move, 
like  a  locomotive  on  its  tracks  of  steel. 
This  suggests  thought  awakening  thought, 
mind  coming  into  contact  with  mind,  the 
flash  of  intelligence,  sparks  created  by  friend- 
ly collision  as  between  the  flint  and  steel. 

7 


o  THE  DIVIXE  ART  OE  PREACHING. 

3.  The  third  effect  of  reading  good  books 
is  the  refining  of  the  sensibilities.  One  is 
brought  into  contact  with  the  heart  of  the 
author  in  his  works,  and  whatever  is  refined 
and  cultivated  and  ennobHng  in  him  com- 
municates itself  to  us.  There  is  a  heart 
quickening  as  well  as  a  head  quickening  in 
all  true  reading. 

4.  Again,  books  of  a  high  character 
chasten  style.  They  show  us  how  the  best 
mgn  think  and  express  their  thoughts ;  they 
enlarge  our  vocabulary,  teach  us  the  dis- 
crimination between  different  words,  and 
how  different  words  may  be  effectively  put 
together  in  sentences,  and  so  they  enlarge 
the  whole  scope  and  compass  of  our  use  of 
knowledge. 

5.  Yet  once  more,  good  books  impart 
moral  tone.  As  a  stream  leaves  its  residuum 
upon  its  bed,  the  green  of  sulphur,  the  red 
of  iron,  the  glitter  of  gold  on  the  very  peb- 
bles that  lie  in  its  channel ;  so  good  books 
leave  their  residuum  in  the  mind  ;  and  this  is 
perhaps  the  main  benefit  of  wholesome  read- 
ing, that  it  leaves  in  the  whole  character  a 
deposit  as  it  passes  through.  The  book 
may  not  be  remembered,  but  the  effect  of  it 
is  permanent. 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  HIS  BOOKS.       9 
Some    rules    for    reading    may    here    be 

added. 

I  First  never  lose  a  valuable  fact  or  a 
good  thought.  Make  a  note  of  it,  preserve 
it,  and  put  it  into  shape  for  future  use.  You 
will  not  only  thus  retain  it,  but  you  will 
make  it  serviceable. 

-.  Never  read  a  vile,  coarse,  or  worthless 
book.  Time  is  too  short,  character  is  too 
priceless;  and  you  are,  moreover,  in  so  doing, 
encouraging  a  low  type  of  literature,  and  so 
helping  to  make  a  market  for  poor  wares; 
and  you  are  so  far  responsible,  for  you  help 
to  create  the  demand  of  which  worthless  lit- 
erature is  the  supply. 

3  Never  pass  by  a  reference  to  an  histor- 
ical or  scientific  fact,  or  anything  else  worth 
kno wing-never  pass  even  a  word  that  you  do 
not  understand-until  it  is  understood.  No 
one  can  tell  how  much  added  intelligence  wi  1 
come  in  the  process  of  reading  a  single  book 
of  worth  by  mastering  its  contents  as  you 
go  If  you  do  not  care  to  stop  in  the  proc- 
ess of  reading,  make  a  note  of  what  you  do 
not  understand  and  search  out  the  meaning 
of  words  and  the   reference  to  facts  after- 

ward. 

4.  Mark  and  indicate  in  the    books  you 


lo         THE  DIl'IXF  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

read  the  matter  contained  in  them.  It  has 
been  my  habit  to  indicate  on  the  margin  of 
a  book  by  single,  double,  or  triple  lines, 
drawn  with  a  pencil,  and  again  by  a  line  un- 
derscoring words  and  sentences,  whatever  in 
these  books  I  desire  to  have  at  my  fingers' 
ends  for  ready  reference  and  future  use;  and 
then,  on  the  fly  leaves  of  such  books,  to  make 
a  brief  index,  under  subjects,  of  such  por- 
tions of  the  contents  as  are  specially  valu- 
able. These  may  seldom  be  referred  to 
afterward,  but  the  very  fact  that  one  has 
made  these  discriminating  marks  will  tend 
to  impress  valuable  contents  upon  the 
memory, 

5.  Read  a  good  book  with  such  mastery 
of  its  general  contents  as  that  you  are  not 
likely  ordinarily  to  need  a  second  reading. 
Read  with  reference  to  a  practical  command 
of  the  contents,  and  not  in  a  slovenly  fashion 
as  though  you  expected  to  give  future  ex- 
amination. 

6.  Read  some  books  at  least  that  tax  all 
your  powers.  It  may  be  well  to  read  now 
and  then  books  that  do  not  by  their  con- 
tents particularly  attract,  and  are  what  we 
call  "dry  reading,"  for  the  sake  of  learn- 
ing   concentration    of    mental    powers,     of 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  HIS  BOOKS,     n 

acquiring  the  voluntary  exercise  of  atten- 
tion aside  from  attractive  features  that  draw 
out  our  mental  powers  by  fascination. 
There  is  some  reading,  which,  like  medicine, 
may  not  be  agreeable,  but  may  be  as  neces- 
sary and  useful. 

7.  Let  reading  be  varied.  Variety  of 
mental  occupation  is  restful  to  the  mind 
itself.  After  reading  a  philosophical  work 
the  mind  will  without  fatigue  turn  to 
romance,  poetry,  history,  or  biography.  We 
rest  in  such  a  variety  of  mental  occupation, 
and  not  in  absolute  repose  of  mind ;  and  the 
very  variety  will  help  us  to  come  back  with 
the    more   avidity  to  a  book  that   we    have 

laid  down. 

8.  Ordinarily  do  not  buy  a  book  that  you 
may  as  well  borrow,  and  which  you  do  not 
need   as  a  permanent  possession.     There  is 
vanity  in  accumulating   a  large  library,  but 
it  is  often  a  snare.     There  are  comparatively 
few  books  that  you  will  ever  examine  after 
you  have  once  carefully  read  them.     Those 
few  you  want   to  keep,  and   keep  at  hand. 
Encyclopedias,  for  instance,  are  permanent 
accessions  to  a   library,  always   in   use,  but 
even  a  worthy  book  of  faction   may  be  once 
read  and  laid  aside. 


12         THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PKEACIIING. 

9.  Seek  first-class  books  not  only  in  point 
of  authorship  but  in  point  of  accuracy,  full- 
ness of  information,  and  complete  classifica- 
tion, so  that  you  may  save  all  the  time  pos- 
sible, and  avoid  all  the  error  possible,  when 
you  consult  their  contents. 

To  these  suggestions  about  reading,  we 
may  add  some  hints  as  to  the  composing  of 
sermons. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   PREACHER  WITH    HIS   THEMES. 

IRST,  accumulate  material  before 
composition  is  undertaken.  No 
builder   would    think   of    quarrying 


the  stones  during  the  process  of  building, 
putting  one  stone  into  shape  in  the  edifice 
and  then  going  away  to  cut  another  in 
the  quarry.  He  gets  the  stone  ready 
at  hand  on  the  building  site  before  he 
begins  to  build,  or  he  is  at  least  certain  to 
make  provision  that  it  shall  be  on  hand  in 
ample  time  for  its  erection  into  the  struc- 
ture. The  larger  your  accumulation  and 
more  perfect  your  classification  of  material 
before  you  begin  to  write,  the  more  rapid 
will  be  your  composition  when  you  start. 

Secondly,  have  your  material  in  an 
available  form.  There  is  much  unused  ma- 
terial that  you  accumulate  in  the  course  of 
a  life  of  thought.  It  may  have  its  use  after- 
ward.    Do  not  discard  it  because  it  has  no 


14         THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

present  utility;  store  it  by,  as  bees  store 
honey  for  future  needs.  Boxes,  labeled  with 
the  letters  of  the  alphabet,  an  ordinary  index 
rcrion,  or  some  other  form  of  receptacle,  in 
which  the  matter  that  is  at  present  waiting 
for  service  may  be  so  classified  and  arranged 
as  to  be  at  hand,  when  wanted,  is  a  deside- 
ratum of  every  preacher. 

Thirdly,  avoid  too  complicated  a  sys- 
tem. The  best  method  becomes  imprac- 
ticable when  it  is  too  large  and  cumbersome 
for  us  to  Avork.  It  may  be  so  complete  and 
so  minute  as  absolutely  to  be  useless.  Espe- 
cially should  your  sermon  memoranda,  upon 
which  you  are  to  draw  frequently,  be  in  a 
form  readily  resorted  to  and  convenient  to 
control. 

Fourthly,  there  is  a  principle  of  "uncon- 
scious" cerebration,  as  Carpenter  has  shown  ; 
a  process  which  corresponds  to  the  incubation 
of  an  egg,  the  gradual  and  unconscious  forma- 
tion of  an  idea  in  the  mind.  You  have 
a  thought  to-day ;  you  make  a  record  of  it ; 
you  draw  it  out  somewhat  in  a  memorandum 
and  lay  it  aside.  A  month  hence  you  take 
up  your  memoranda,  and  you  find  that  the 
thought  has  unconsciously  matured.  You 
have  been  incubating  your  own  conception, 


THE  PREACHER  WITH  HIS  THEMES.      15 

and  it  is  growing  toward  completeness 
though  you  have  been  unconscious  of  any 
mental  process  concerning  it. 

Fifthly,  it  is  well  to  write  out  fully  for  the 
sake  of  style,  even  though  you  may  not  use 
what  you  write  in  the  pulpit.  It  will  help 
even  extemporaneous  address,  to  habituate 
yourselves  to  the  careful  use  of  the  pen  in 
the  formation  of  sentences,  in  the  accurate 
choice  of  words,  in  the  study  of  the  position 
and  relation  of  particles,  in  the  training  of 
your  mind  and  pen  in  accurate  and  graceful 
forms  of  speech.  All  these  things  tell  on 
the  speaker,  even  though  he  may  make  no 
direct  pen  preparation  for  the  particular 
address  that  he  delivers. 

Sixthly,  it  is  well  to  write  for  the  press  and 
to  publish  at  times;  but  it  is  never  well  to 
hurry  into  print.  Write  for  all  the  future 
time,  and  write  what  you  are  willing  to  have 
abide  for  all  the  future  time.  Give  the  best 
products  of  your  mind  and  of  your  pen  to 
the  printing  press,  and  give  nothing  else. 

Seventhly,  as  has  been  hinted  already, 
every  form  of  neatness  and  accuracy  in  the 
work  done,  even  in  penmanship,  will  help  to 
a  similarly  neat  and  accurate  method  of 
thinking.      These  two  go  together;  slovenli- 


1 6         THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

ness  of  the  hand  is  the  companion  of  slovenli- 
ness of  the  brain. 

Eightly,  continuous  writing  when  you 
write,  and  continuous  thinking  when  you 
think,  are  favorable  to  that  particular  ardor 
and  fervor,  that  mental  excitement  and  in- 
spiration that  we  call  by  the  name  of  glow. 
You  cannot  bring  the  brain  to  the  white 
heat  except,  as  you  bring  the  iron  to  the 
white  heat,  by  the  continuous  action  of  the 
fire  and  the  blast  through  the  furnace. 
Avoid,  therefore,  unnecessary  interruptions 
in  the  midst  of  your  work,  and  seek  continu- 
ousness  of  thought  and  utterance. 

Ninthly,  Ave  are  not  to  despise  any  intel- 
lectual faculty  or  power  which  God  has  given 
us.  It  constitutes  one  of  the  tools  in  our 
chest  of  tools  which  we  should  sharpen  dili- 
gently, and  prepare  ourselves  to  use  effect- 
ively. Solomon  says  in  Eccl.  x.  lO:  "If 
the  iron  be  blunt  and  one  do  not  whet  the 
edge  then  must  he  put  to  the  more  strength." 
And  the  old  proverb  reads,  that  "a  whet  is 
no  let."  The  time  is  not  lost  that  the 
mower  spends  in  sharpening  his  scythe  or  the 
reaper  his  sickle.  A  man  with  less  natural 
faculty — that  is,  with  less  strength  of  arm — 
may    accomplish     more,  with    his   faculties 


THE  PREACHER  WITH  HIS  THEMES,      i? 

sharpened  and  acumenated,  than  a  man  of 
larger  natural  gifts  or  strength,  with  duller 
weapons.  Therefore  let  us  make  the  most 
of  the  powers  that  God  has  given  us. 

Just  here  we  may  make  a  few  suggestions 
with  regard  to  the  aid  whicli  may  be  secured 
from  the  memory. 


CHAPTER    IV. 


THE   PREACHER   TRAINING   HIS   MEMORY. 


E  must  learn  to  use  that  marvelous 
power,  which  enables  us  to  recall 
and  reproduce  past  experiences. 
First,  the  highest  simplicity  and  greatest 
naturalness  of  arrangement  will  help  us  to 
retain  what  it  is  desired  to  retain.  In  pro- 
portion as  things  arc  artificial  and  unnatural 
in  arrangement  will  memory  find  it  difificult, 
if  not  impossible,  to  remember.  Nothing, 
for  example,  is  more  difficult  to  retain  and 
reproduce  than  an  artificial  arrangement  of 
numbers  or  of  names;  but  the  moment  that 
a  principle  of  classification  is  adopted  by 
which  one  thing  suggests,  or  leads  on  to, 
another,  we  find  that  the  weakest  memory 
can  be  trained  to  retention  and  readiness. 
Avoid,  therefore,  all  artificiality. 

Secondly,  call  to  your  aid  the  pictorial 
faculty  if  you  would  help  the  memory. 
Make    your     arrangement    of    thought    as 

i8 


PREACHER  TRAINING  HIS  MEMORY.      19 

nearly  visible  as  possible.  For  instance, 
Amos  says:  "Can  two  walk  together  except 
they  be  agreed,"  Picture  to  yourself  two 
persons  walking  together  over  one  path. 
They  must  of  course  have  a  common  start- 
ing-point ;  they  must  have  a  common  course 
and  a  common  goal.  By  fixing  this  image 
in  your  mind,  a  path,  with  a  terminus  a  quo, 
and  a  terminus  ad  qtiem,  you  can  readily 
remember  the  essential  points  of  your  dis- 
course. If  we  would  agree  with  God  in  our 
walk  with  Him,  we  must  have  a  common 
point  at  which  to  start,  a  common  path 
to  walk  in,  a  common  goal  at  which  to 
aim. 

The  simple  object  lesson  of  the  "three 
crosses,"  is  another  illustration  of  the  help 
of  pictures  in  aiding  the  memory.  Three 
crosses  are  drawn,  or,  if  you  please,  imag- 
ined. Over  one  is  the  inscription:  "In,  not 
on."  Over  the  middle  cross:  "On,  not  in." 
Over  the  other  cross:  "In  and  on."  This 
means  that  sin  was  not  in  Christ,  but  laid 
upon  Him  as  a  sin  offering;  that  it  was  in 
the  penitent  thief,  but  not  laid  on  him  as  a 
penalty.  With  regard  to  the  impenitent 
thief,  it  was  both  in  him,  as  guilt,  and  on 
him,  as  penalty.     Pictorial  methods  are  not 


20        THE  DIVIXE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

to  be  despised,  if  they  help  a  weak  memory 
in  retaining  and  reproducing. 

Thirdly,  train  yourselves  to  accurate 
analysis.  Labor  on  the  great  departments 
of  a  sermon,  and  even  the  subordinate  parts, 
until  as  far  as  may  be  you  have  perfected 
your  analysis.  The  very  effort  to  reach  such 
perfection  will  make  it  difficult  to  forget 
what  you  have  thus  elaborated,  and  the  nat- 
uralness and  completeness  of  the  analysis 
will  itself  help  the  memory  in  its  retention. 

Fourthly,  you  may  sometimes  avail  your- 
selves of  alliteration  and  parallelism  and 
other  rhetorical  devices.  For  instance  a 
modern  author  says  the  gospel  "proscribes 
asceticism  and  prescribes  ajstheticism." 
The  very  form  of  the  sentence  not  only 
gives  the  idea  a  very  complete  expression, 
but  it  makes  it  difficult  to  forget  either  the 
thought  or  its  form.  "Indolence  and  igno- 
rance are  the  handmaids  of  vice,  as  industry 
and  intelligence  arc  the  handmaids  of  vir- 
tue." Here  a  law  of  parallelism  runs 
through  the  entire  proverb.  Fix  the  prov- 
erb once  in  memory  and  you  have  not  only 
a  valuable  thought,  but  you  have  the  heads 
of  a  valuable  discourse.  It  has  been  said 
that  the   four  rules   of  Christian  living  are, 


PREACHER  TRAINING  HIS  MEMORY.      2t 

"admit,  submit,  commit,  transmit."  Admit 
— open  the  doors  to  the  Truth.  Submit — 
bow  to  the  will  of  God.  Commit— trust 
yourself  to  Christ.  Transmit — convey  truth 
and  life  to  other  souls.  How  easily  such  an 
analysis  is  borne  in  mind. 

Fifthly,  sometimes  an  acrostic  arrange- 
ment  will  help  the  memory.  It  is  not  nec- 
essary to  tell  your  audience  that  you  resort 
to  an  acrostic  structure,  but,  if  your  memory 
is  weak,  this  may  assist  you.  ^or  instance  a 
man  desired  to  make  an  address  to  young 
people  on  seven  secrets  of  success.  He 
associated  them  with  the  initial  letters  of 
the  word  "Forward" — Faith,  Obedience, 
Resolution,  Work,  Associations,  Relaxa- 
tions, Devoutness.  This  made  it  impossible 
for  him  to  forget  his  train  of  thought,  and 
greatly  assisted  his  memory  in  reproducing. 

Sixthly,  it  is  well  sometimes  to  make  a 
general  framework  for  discourses  of  a  more 
general  character,  leaving  room  for  variety 
in  filling  in.  A  discourse  which,  like  a 
popular  lecture,  is  likely  to  be  used  many 
times,  may  retain  on  many  different  occa- 
sions its  general  uniformity  of  structure, 
while  the  speaker  employs  variety  in  the 
details.     There  is  in  Philadelphia,  in  one  of 


2  2         THE  DIVIXE  ART  OF  rREACHIXG. 

the  largest  of  our  shops,  a  model  cottage, 
built  into  the  structure  and  fully  furnished 
and  garnished  as  a  specimen  or  model  for 
those  who  desire  to  prepare  attractive  and 
agreeable  homes.  The  framework  of  the 
cottage  has  been  the  same  for  many  years, 
but  the  furniture  and  the  garniture  are  con- 
tinually undergoing  change.  Now,  let  the 
structure  of  the  cottage  represent  the  gen- 
eral framework  of  such  a  discourse  as  I  have 
supposed,  and  the  furnishing  and  the  garnish- 
ing represent  the  filling  in  of  the  minutiae. 

At  the  beginning  of  my  own  ministerial 
life,  foreseeing  that  demands  would  be  fre- 
quently made  upon  me  for  public  lectures 
and  addresses,  on  general  occasions,  I  framed 
several  discourses  on  popular  and  useful 
themes,  and  have  been  accustomed  to  use 
them  from  time  to  time,  making  such 
changes  in  the  elaboration  of  the  various  de- 
partments and  illustrations  of  thought  as  x\\y 
own  mental  growth  and  increasing  intel- 
ligence or  the  surrounding  circumstances 
might  allow;  and  I  found  these  to  be  ex- 
ceedingly useful  to  me,  being  oftentimes 
called  upon  with  very  little  or  no  notice. 
These  have  lain  in  the  mind  and  memory  as 
the    general     foundation    for    addresses    for 


PREACHER  TRAINING  HIS  MEMORY.      23 

which    no    special    preparation     could     be 
made. 

Seventhly,  it  is  useful  immediately  before 
preaching  to  draw  out  what  may  be  called  a 
last  analysis,  casting  aside  previous  prepara- 
tions and  notes  already  put  down  on  paper; 
and,  just  as  one  is  about  to  enter  the  pulpit, 
gathering  the  last  impressions  of  the  subject 
as  it  lies  in  the  mind,  with  the  latest  light 
that  has  come  to  us  by  the  Spirit  and 
through  the  Word.  This  will  oftentimes  be 
found  to  be  a  most  valuable  preparation  for 
the  duty  immediately  before  you.  It  will 
freshen  and  quicken  the  memory,  and  at  the 
same  time  enable  you  to  cast  into  form  the 
last  suggestions  which  the  Truth  has  made 
upon  your  own  mind  and  heart. 


CHAPTER   V. 

THE   TWIN-LAWS   OF  THE   SERMON. 


ERTAIN  principles,  which  pertain 
to  preaching,  present  themselves  in 
fti 'ri-g^^'iai  (Joubles,  like  the  parallel  parts  of  a 
proverb,  or  like  the  apposite  members  on 
the  right  and  left  sides  of  the  human  body 
which  correspond  to  each  other. 

I.  For  example,  there  is  what  we  may  call 
the  germinal  and  terminal  law. 

By  the  germinal  law  of  the  sermon  we 
mean  that  it  must  get  its  theme,  and  the 
essentials  of  its  treatment,  from  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Word  and  of  the  Spirit.  Then 
there  is  preparation  for  preaching  with  the 
power  of  God. 

The  correspondent  to  this  germinal  law  is 
a  terminal  law,  /.  e.,  there  is  a  certain  end, 
or  terminus,  to  be  kept  in  view.  A  sermon 
is,  as  we  have  seen,  a  speech  having  a  defi- 
nite aim,  or  result,  in  the  convictions,  affec- 
tions, resolutions  of  the  hearer.  The  ger- 
24 


THE  TWIN- LA  WS  OF  THE  SERMON.      25 

minal  law  gives  the  starting-point ;  the  ter- 
minal gives  the  goal  of  sacred  discourse. 
There  must  be  a  terminus  ad  qiiein  as  well 
as  a  terminus  a  quo. 

In  pulpit  oratory  are  three  elements, 
either  of  which  may  control :  the  text,  the 
subject  or  theme,  and  the  object  or  end 
aimed  at.  If  the  text  rule,  the  result  is  an 
exposition  or  exegesis;  if  the  subject,  an 
essay  or  discourse;  if  the  object  to  be  at- 
tained be  steadily  kept  in  view,  and  control 
the  disposition  of  the  parts  and  the  expres- 
sion and  delivery,  we  get  properly  a  sermon. 

If  then  the  first  thing  fixed,  in  framing  the 
normal  sermon,  is  the  end  or  result  to  be 
reached,  then  we  are  ready  to  choose  the 
best  subject  to  reach  the  object,  and  the 
best  text  to  develop  the  subject.  Other 
methods  may  reach  some  success,  but  not 
the  highest.  If  one  starts  with  a  subject 
which  he  proposes  to  treat,  he  risks  accom- 
modating the  text  to  the  theme  rather  than 
the  theme  to  the  text.  In  such  cases  the 
germ  of  the  sermon  is  found  often  in  the 
preacher's  brain  rather  than  in  the  mind  of 
God,  and  the  use  of  Scripture  is  sometimes 
so  foreign  to  its  original  purport  and  pur- 
pose that   it  becomes  a  caricature.     Others 


20         THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

start  with  a  text  which  seems  attractive  or 
effective,  and  elaborate  it  into  an  exposi- 
tion; but  if,  in  the  course  of  its  treatment, 
}io  other  oid  is  kept  in  \iew,  there  is  risk  of 
merely  displaying  such  ingenuity  and  orig- 
inality in  interpretation,  as,  though  it  may 
interest  and  perhaps  instruct  the  hearer,  fails 
to  grapple  with  his  conscience  and  will,  as  in 
the  most  energetic  and  effective  oratory. 

The  preachers  who  wield  most  spiritual 
power,  although  their  methods  may  be  de- 
fective and  even  crude,  are  always  seeking 
after  souls;  they  may  set  all  homiletical  and 
even  grammatical  laws  at  defiance,  but, 
whether  consciously  or  unconsciously,  there 
is  a  definite  purpose,  evolved,  perhaps,  in 
the  process  of  making  or  preaching  the  ser- 
mon, which  purpose  reacts  upon  the  product. 
Many  a  discourse  which  began  in  the  viola- 
tion of  this  fundamental  law  of  the  sermon, 
has  been  remodeled  while  it  was  wrought. 
He  who  started  with  a  topic  or  a  text  ends 
with  an  all-engrossing  object — the  saving  or 
sanctifying  of  souls,  the  only  object  that  can 
produce  the  ideal  sermon. 

If  we  are  to  have  a  new  era  of  power  in 
preaching,  we  must  have  a  more  definite 
result,   toward   which   all   else   moves.      An 


THE  r IV IN-LAWS  OF  THE  SERMON.      27 

essay  may  be  ingenious,  and  an  exposition 
original,  and  yet  lack  oratorical  power;  as 
Whately  said,  the  man  "aims  at  nothing,  and 
hits  it."  Above  all  others  the  preacher 
needs  the  power  of  an  engrossing  purpose. 
Then  Betterton's  remark  to  the  Lord  Bishop 
of  London  will  no  longer  have  point ;  that 
while  "actors  speak  of  things  imaginary  as 
though  real,  preachers  speak  of  things  real 
as  though  imaginary."  * 

This  germinal  and  terminal  law  we  believe 
to  be  fundamental  to  preaching-power; 
could  it  become  a  governing  law,  it  would 
revolutionize  modern  preaching. 

2.  Another  of  these  twin  laws  is  that  of 
impression  and  expression. 

An  influence  must  first  be  exerted  by  the 
truth  on  the  mind  of  the  preacher  himself, 
and  then  through  his  mind  on  that  of  the 
hearer.  This  double  process  reminds  us  of 
the  affluent  and  effluent  action  of  the  ner- 
vous system.  "Expression  is  the  result  of 
impression,"  and  the  power  of  the  former 
will  correspond  to  the  depth  and  breadth  of 
the    latter,   as   in   the    tree    the  expanse   of 

*  Betterton's  original  epigram  was: 

You  in  the  pulpit  tell  a  story  ; 
We,  on  the  stage,  show  facts. 


28         THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

branches  above  ground  corresponds  to  the 
expanse  of  roots  below.  Impression  there- 
fore represents  the  truth  at  work  on  the 
speaker,  and  expression  will  represent  that 
impression  as  conveyed  to  others  through 
the  channels  of  utterance. 

We  have  little  need  to  fear  as  to  the  ex- 
pression if  we  have  been  careful  about  the 
impression.  Let  the  conception  of  truth  in 
ourselves  then  be  clear  and  well  defined,  and 
its  effect  on  us  deep  and  ineradicable,  force- 
ful and  powerful.  The  longer  the  exposure 
to  the  influence  of  the  truth,  the  deeper  and 
more  permanent  the  image  formed  on  the 
mind.  By  what  Mr.  Lockyer  calls  a  mag- 
nificent arrangement,  images  made  on  the 
back  of  the  eye  are  never  deepened  and 
extended  beyond  a  certain  limit.  However 
long  we  gaze,  the  first  fade  to  give  place  for 
those  that  follow.  It  is  exactly  opposite 
with  the  sensitive  plate;  the  longer  the 
exposure,  the  intenser  the  image,  and  the 
minuter  the  details.  Distant  stars  are  there- 
fore depicted  on  the  long  exposed  plate 
which  never  could  be  seen  by  naked  eye. 
The  mind  is  such  a  sensitive  plate,  and  the 
power  of  impression  depends  on  the  length 
of  the  exposure.     Every  student   needs  to 


THE  TWIN-LAWS  OF  THE  SEKMOiY.      29 

cultivate  the  power  of  concentrating  his 
mind  on  themes,  of  going  after  and  recover- 
ing lost  and  incomplete  trains  of  thought, 
and  of  holding  and  burying  truth  in  mind 
until  it  takes  deep  root. 

3.  There  is  a  corresponding  law  of  inten- 
sity and  extensity.  These  terms  are  used 
with  reference  to  the  effects  to  be  sought 
for  on  the  hearer.  Extensity  may  express 
the  touching  of  the  whole  man,  spreading 
the  truth  over  a  wide  surface,  bringing  it 
into  contact  with  conviction,  emotion,  con- 
science, will ;  and  intensity  may  remind  us 
that  we  should  not  sacrifice  depth  of  impres- 
sion, but  strike  to  the  very  vitals,  not  satis- 
fied to  make  a  superficial  impression,  but 
aiming  to  grapple  with  the  deepest  man. 
We  must  make  others  feel  that  we  are  pro- 
foundly in  earnest.  "Father  Vassar,"  in 
Boston,  approached  on  one  occasion  a 
worldly  woman  whom  he  had  never  met 
before,  and  engaged  her  in  conversation 
about  -her  soul.  When  her  husband  re- 
joined her  and  she  told  him  the  circum- 
stances, he  said,  "If  I  had  been  there  I  would 
have  told  him  to  go  about  his  own  busi- 
ness." But  she  replied:  "Husband,  if  you 
had  been  there,  you  would  have  thought  he 


3°         THE  DIVIiVE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

was  about  his  own  business."  F.  W".  Rob- 
ertson has  said  that  there  are  four  great 
forms  of  power:  prescriptive  authority,  phys- 
ical force,  reason,  and  truth.  May  we  not 
add,  that  of  them  all,  reason  and  truth  are 
far  the  mightiest. 

4.  There  is  also  the  law  of  inclusion  and 
exclusion.  Sermon  delivery  should  include 
the  whole  man ;  conviction  must  insure 
positive  faith  in  his  message,  for  hesita- 
tion in  him  will  beget  it  in  others;  there 
must  be  emotion  to  help  in  persuasion  ;  con- 
science, to  give  intrepidity  and  force,  as  it 
gave  to  Chrj'sostom  before  Eudoxia,  Knox 
before  Queen  Mary,  and  Luther  before  the 
Diet  of  Worms,  and  Ambrose  before  Theo- 
dosius.  By  exclusion,  we  mean  that  all 
unworthy  motives  should  be  shut  out,  all 
unfair  dealing  with  the  Truth  or  the  hearer, 
all  conscious  sophistry  or  fallacy  in  argu- 
ment; and  that  all  personal  hindrances  to 
the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  should  be  sedu- 
lously avoided. 

One  word  may  be  added  about  the  place 
of  humor  in  public  discourse.  Especially 
do  I  fear  that  this  element  of  humor  is  much 
abused.  It  is  contended  that  man  is  a  harp 
of  a  thousand  strings  and  all  may  be  Icgiti- 


THE  TWIh'-LAWS  OF  THE  SERMON.      3 1 

mately  played  on;  but  while  all  the  notes 
are  necessary  to  a  complete  instrument,  all 
combinations  of  notes  are  not  helpful  to 
harmony.  Melody  and  harmony  must  obey 
the  law  of  the  chord.  There  is  a  manifest 
difference  between  irony  and  satire — the 
more  dignified  forms  of  humor — and  ridicule 
and  jest,  which  often  verge  upon  trifling  and 
frivolity.  A  laugh  when  a  man  at  Niagara 
Falls  was  going  over  into  the  chasm,  would 
be  manifestly  akin  to  a  crime.  Humor 
which  is  genuine  and  spontaneous  is  like  a 
flow  of  the  waters  from  a  spring,  but  an  arti- 
ficial and  mechanical  humor  is  very  like  the 
spasmodic  action  of  an  old,  dry  pump. 
There  are  proprieties  which  ought  to  govern 
all  occasions.  Varley  preached  to  five  thou- 
sand souls  in  May,  1890,  in  the  vast  crater 
of  Mount  Eden,  which  has  a  capacity  for 
holding  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand. 
We  are  actually  preaching  to  souls  in  the 
very  crater  of  perdition,  and  such  preaching 
is  a  very  solemn  business  which  largely 
limits  the  play  of  the  humorous  faculties. 
Waldenstrom,  the  famous  Swede,  of  whom 
Mr.  Moody  says  that  he  is  probably  the 
greatest  winner  of  souls  of  this  century,  sent 
for  Mr.  Moody  while  he  was  in  the  city  of 


3  2         THE  DIVIXE  ART  OF  PRE  A  CHI  KG. 

Chicago,  and  begged  him  not  to  allow 
speakers  to  create  uproarious  merriment  in 
his  religious  mcetin";s,  for,  the  wise  man 
added,  that  he  always  noticed  that  those 
times  when  a  congregation  is  stirred  to 
laughter,  are  the  moments  that  the  devil 
takes  to  catch  away  the  seed  of  Truth  sown 
in  their  hearts.  I  would  especially  warn  the 
students  of  the  Pastor's  College  against  in- 
ferring that,  because  Mr.  Spurgeon  made 
such  use  of  humor,  they  also  can  employ  it 
with  equal  effectiveness.  In  this,  as  in  other 
respects,  Mr.  Spurgeon  showed  marked  gen- 
ius; he  knew  how  to  use  humor  skillfully.  I 
question  very  much  whether  even  he  did  not 
regard  his  use  of  humor  in  his  earlier  minis- 
try as  somewhat  illegitimate,  for  he  certainly 
sobered  very  much  in  his  manner  of  preach- 
ing toward  the  latter  part  of  his  life. 

5.  There  is  the  law  of  flow  and  glow,  or 
fluency  and  fervency.  Fullness  of  matter 
and  amplitude  of  preparation  must  be 
secured,  in  order  to  freedom  of  utterance; 
and  besides  this,  we  need  ardor  and  fervor 
and  passion  in  delivery.  The  flow  de- 
pends on  the  ample  accumulation  of  ma- 
terial. Always  let  a  man  get  more  than  he 
can  use.  then  he  can  elect  and  select.     There 


THE  TIVIN-LA  WS  OF  THE  SERMON.      H 

is  great  power  in  reserve.  It  is  well  for  a 
speaker  to  have  more  material  behind  than 
he  brings  to  the  front.  Meditation  on 
Scripture  and  comparison  of  Scripture  with 
Scripture  will  serve  to  make  preparation  so 
ample  that  there  will  be  no  failure  of 
thought  or  speech  when  the  utterance  be- 
comes necessary.  As  to  the  glow,  it  will 
depend  on  experimental  application  of  the 
truth.  Truth  must  first  lay  hold  of  you  and 
be  matured  in  your  own  soul.  There  is 
needed  a  practical  rumination,  till  that  \vhich 
you  have  cropped  in  the  external  pasturage 
becomes  milk  in  the  udder,  full  and  warm. 
Then  it  is  not  grass  but  milk  that  you  are 
giving  to  your  hearer. 

6.  There  is  a  sixth  law,  that  of  the  funda- 
mental and  the-  ornamental.  To  this  we 
may  apply  the  architectural  maxim:  "Never 
construct  ornament,  but  ornament  construc- 
tion." The  basis  of  discourse  claims,  first  of 
all,  our  attention.  The  general  foundations 
must  be  broad  and  firm,  scriptural  and  spir- 
itual. The  structure  must  be  according-  to 
the  pattern  shewed  us  in  the  mount.  The 
ornamental  features  are  subordinate  and  com- 
paratively of  little  consequence,  and  they  are 
mostly  of  value  when  they  are  unconsciously 


34         THE  DIVINE  ART  OE  PREACHING. 

developed  in  the  process  of  building  the  ser- 
mon. To  make  a  sermon  for  the  sake  of 
working  in  an  anecdote  or  figure  of  speech, 
or  a  line  simile,  or  a  verse  of  a  poem,  or  a 
quaint  conception,  is  beginning  at  the  wrong 
end.  It  is  like  finding  some  stray  Corin- 
thian column,  and  erecting  a  structure  for 
the  sake  of  building  in  that  column.  We 
should  begin  the  other  way.  Get  the  doc- 
trinal basis  ;  get  a  practical  purpose,  and  then 
let  everything  else  pertaining  to  the  rhetor- 
ical be  subordinate. 

There  are  yet  other  double  laws  which 
may  be  simply  mentioned,  such  as  the  law  of 
argument  and  experiment,  or  logic  and  love; 
the  doctrinal  and  the  practical  ;  exposition 
and  apposition,  or  finding  the  truth  in  the 
Word  and  fitting  it  to  the  needs  of  the 
hearer;  the  perpetual  and  the  occasional,  or 
the  great  staple  of  discourse  and  the  inci- 
dental occurrences  which  may  justify  special 
sermons;  the  analytic  and  the  synthetic,  etc. 

But  the  object  in  view  is  served,  if  these 
brief  hints  have  called  attention  to  those 
principles  of  sermonic  structure  which  affect 
the  sermon  as  an  artistic  product — perhaps  it 
may  be  added — when  the  ideal  is  reached,  the 
highest  product  of  which  the  mind  is  capable. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

TYPES   OF   SERMON-STRUCTURE. 


ERMONS  may  be  comprehensively 
divided  into  textual,  topical,  and 
typical. 

Textual  preaching. — First,  the  textual,  so 
called  because  directly  derived  from,  and 
closely  associated  with  the  text  of  the 
sacred  Word.  Whatever  may  be  said  of 
other  forms  of  sermons,  this  presents  the 
undoubted  ideal.  As  Kepler  said,  in  astro- 
nomic studies,  "I  am  thinking  God's 
thoughts  after  God,"  so  may  the  true 
preacher  say ;  for  his  object  is  to  get  at  the 
Divine  mind  in  the  Divine  Word,  compre- 
hend and  appreciate  it,  and  then  embody 
and  express  it.  This  conception  of  a  ser- 
mon will  first  give  inspiration  to  the  work  as 
essentially  a  Divine  work ;  secondly,  author- 
ity to  the  utterance  as  essentially  a  Divine 
utterance;  thirdly,  originality,  and  that  of 
the  highest  sort,  being  the  originality,  not  of 


3^        THE  DIVIXE  ART  OE  PREACH  I XG. 

invention,  but  of  discovery,  that  is,  an  un- 
folding of  the  mind  of  God  as  discovered  by 
the  study  of  the  sacred  Scriptures;  and 
fourthly,  power,  as  the  channel  of  the  Spirit, 
and  therefore  communicating  an  influence 
which  is  essentially  Divine.  It  was  the  be- 
loved Arnot  who  said  that  he  had  discovered 
that  what  actually  brings  souls  to  Christ  is 
not  our  words  in  the  sermon,  but  some  word 
of  God  that  is  in  the  midst  of  our  words.  A 
noted  pastor  has  testified  that  in  a  long  pas- 
torate he  had  never  known  a  soul  to  be 
brought  to  Christ  except  through  some  tes- 
timony of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  What  then 
is  the  use  of  human  words?  To  quote  Arnot 
again,  they  are  "the  feathers  which  carry  the 
divine  arrow  straight  to  its  mark." 

Laivs  of  Textual  Preaching. — The  first  law 
is,  acquaint  yourself  with  the  text,  its  letter, 
its  meaning,  its  spirit.  We  must  remember 
that  the  italicised  words  are  supplied  by 
translators,  and  there  are  many  cases  in 
which  their  utility  is  doubtful.  It  is  only 
the  uneducated  that  take  them  to  represent 
the  emphatic  words,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
ignorant  exhorter  who  road,  "And  he  said 
unto  his  sons,  '  saddle  me  the  ass,'  and  they 
saddled  hivt."     John  iii.  34  maybe  cited   as 


TYPES  OF  SERMON-STRUCTURE.         37 

a  possible  example  of  the  italicised  words 
giving  a  new  and,  it  may  be,  untrue  mean- 
ing. The  intention  may  have  been  to  say 
that  God  does  not  dole  out  the  Spirit  by 
measure,  that  is,  in  limited  supplies,  and  the 
words  "unto  him"  may  wrongly  limit  the 
application   to  Christ  Jesus. 

All  divisions  of  chapters  and  verses,  and 
even  punctuation  marks,  are  human  devices. 
In  Luke  xiii.  24,  25  the  substitution  of  a 
comma  for  a  period  gives  an  entirely  differ- 
ent sense.  "Strive  to  enter  in  at  the  strait 
gate,  for  many  I  say  unto  you  shall  seek  to 
enter  in  and  shall  not  be  able,  when  once  the 
master  of  the  house  had  risen  up  and  hath 
shut  to  the  door." 

We  must  note  changes  of  meaning  in 
English  words;  for  example,  the  word  "con- 
versation," which  means  course  of  life,  or 
conduct,  and  in  one  case,  citizenship.  Com- 
pare Hebrews  xiii.  5,  Philippians  iii.  20. 

Our  English  Bible  is  only  a  translation, 
more  or  less  complete  as  the  case  may  be. 
The  true  preacher  of  the  Word  should  get 
at  the  original  if  possible,  and  study  such 
commentators  as  bring  him  into  closest  con- 
tact with  the  original,  like  Bengel  and  Al- 
ford,  etc. 


38         THE  DIVINE  ART  OE  PREACHING. 

We  should  find  out  the  central  and 
emphatic  words  wliich  are  the  pivots  or 
hinges  of  the  meaning.  This  can  be  ascer- 
tained only  by  a  very  careful  and  even  criti- 
cal examination. 

We  must  study  the  grammatical  and 
rhetorical  structure,  which  are  an  immense 
help  to  exegesis.  For  instance,  where  im- 
peratives and  participles  are  found  together, 
the  imperative  usually  represents  the  stress 
of  the  paragraph,  and  the  participles^  sub- 
ordinate clauses.  Compare  I  Peter  i.  i^,  15. 
The  emphatic  word  is  "hope."  In  the 
original  there  are  three  participles,  "girding 
up,"  "being  sober"  "not  fashioning  your- 
selves," which  represent  the  ways  of  culti- 
vating hope.  Compare  Jude,  twentieth  and 
twenty-first  verses.  The  emphatic  word  is 
"keep."  The  subordinate  participles  are 
"building,  praying,  looking,"  which  are  means 
of  keeping. 

Wherever  we  detect  parallel  structure  it 
will  assist  us  in  exposition.  The  parallelism 
demands  corresponding  members,  and  hence 
the  correspondence  must  be  sought  for.  In 
Matthew  vii.  6:  "Give  not  that  which  is  holy 
unto  the  dogs,"  etc.,  the  first  and  last 
clauses  correspond    as    do  the    two  middle 


TYPES  OF  SERMOJSr-STRUCTtJRE.         39 

clauses.  It  is  the  dogs  that  turn  again  and 
rend  you,  and  the  swine  that  trample  pearls 
under  their  feet.  Compare  I  Tim.  iii.  i6, 
where  there  are  three  pairs  of  clauses : 

"  God  was  manifest  in  the  flesh,  justified 
in  the  spirit ; 

Seen  of  angels,  preached  unto  the  Gen- 
tiles; 

Believed  on  in  the  world,  received  up  into 
glory." 

In  the  last  commission  as  given  in  the 
twenty-eighth  chapter  of  Matthew,  the  gram- 
matical structure  shows  us  that  the  stress  of 
the  command  lies  on  "Go,  disciple."  The 
subordinate  duties  are,  "baptizing"  and 
"teaching."  The  parallel  structure  also 
shows  us  that  the  declaration :  "All  power 
is  given  unto  Me,"  which  begins  the  commis- 
sion, and  the  promise,  "Lo,  I  am  with  you 
alway,"  which  ends  the  commission,  are  the 
encouragements  to  the  command  which  con- 
stitutes the  body  of  the  commission.  Be- 
cause all  power  is  Christ's,  and  He  will  always 
be  with  us,  tJicrefore  we  are  to  go  forward 
and  carry  the  gospel  to  all  parts  of  the  earth. 

Acquaintance  with  the  text  demands  that 
we  study  the  context.  For  example:  In 
which  Testament  is  a  text  found?     Again,  in 


40         THE  Dl  I  -JXE  A  A' T  OF  PRE  A  CUING. 

what  particular  book?  Who  is  the  author? 
Where  was  the  book  written?  When?  For 
what  purpose,  and  to  whom?  Again,  wliat 
is  the  exact  point  in  the  argument,  and  what 
is  the  rekition  of  the  context  to  tlie  argu- 
ment as  a  whole.  A  faithful  expositor  never 
overlooks  any  of  these  minor  details,  for  all 
this  will  guide  in  exposition. 

2.  A  second  law  of  textual  preaching,  is, 
seek  a  textual  division  for  a  textual  dis- 
course; one  that  is  natural  and  not  artificial; 
one  that  is  exhaustive  and  complete;  one 
that  is  climacteric,  advancing  from  weaker  to 
stronger,  from  lower  to  higher  points  and 
considerations. 

We  add  a  few  examples  of  textual  out- 
lines. Gen.  xlii.  21  :  "We  are  verilj' 
guilty  concerning  our  biother,"  etc.  Here 
we  have  the  three  elements  which  enter  into 
man's  natural  retribution  •.  first,  meuiory, 
"We  saw  the  anguish  of  his  soul,"  twenty 
years  before.  Secondly,  conscience,  "We 
are  verily  guilty  concerning  our  brother." 
Thirdly,  reason,  "Therefore  is  this  distress 
come  upon  us." 

Acts  i.  25:  "Judas  by  transgression  fell 
that  he  might  go  to  his  own  place."  I.  Here 
is  sin,  represented  as  a  fall.     First,  faster  and 


T  YPES  OF  SERMONS  TR  UC  TURK.         4 1 

farther;  secondly,  no  self-recovery  possible, 
as  in  a  falling  body;  thirdly,  ultnnately 
fatal;  and  yet  fourthly,  responsible  because 
caused  by  transgression.  II.  Every  sou 
goes  to  his  own  place.  First,  every  soul 
has  his  own  place;  secondly,  makes  his  own 
place  ;  thirdly,  f^nds  his  own  place  ;  fourthly, 
feels  that  it  is  his  own  place  when  he  gets 
there.     (Dr.  Alex.  Dickson.) 

2  Tim.  i.  12.  The  four  principal  words  of 
this  text  suggest  the  four  degrees  of  faith : 
belief,  persuasion,  commitment,  and  knowl- 
edge or  certainty. 

John  xii.  24.     "Except  a  corn  of  wheat  tali 
into  the   ground  and  die."     First,  what    is  it 
to  abide  alone?     A  life  kept  for  selfish  ends. 
Secondly,  what   is  it  to  die?     A  life  volun- 
tarily  lost    or  sacrificed   for  God   and  men. 
Thirdly,  what  is  it   to  yield  fruit?      A  life 
regained  and  reproduced,  in  fruit,  in  service. 
In  our  Load's  Intercessory  prayer  in  John 
xvii.    the    four    thoughts    are,  "separated," 
"sanctified,"  "unified,"  and   "glorified,"  and 
these   four  are  in  their  natural  and  normal 

order. 

Acts  xiii.  36,  "David  served  his  own  gen- 
eration by  the  will  of  God."  Here  we  have 
first,  the  true  object   of  life,  service.     Sec- 


42         THE  D/r/,VE  ART  OF  PREACUhXG. 

ondly,  the  sphere  of  hfe,  our  own  generation. 
Thirdly,  the  secret  of  Hfe,  the  will  of  God. 

A  true  Bible  reading  is  a  textual  discourse, 
only  it  is  founded  upon  comparison  with 
Scripture  and  the  accumulation  of  Scripture 
testimony.  Take,  for  instance,  "Christ  also 
suffered  for  us."  There  are  eight  passages 
of  Scripture  that  throw  light  upon  this 
statement:  I  Pet.  iii.  i8,  "To  bring  us 
unto  God."  I  Pet.  ii.  24,  Our  "death  unto 
sin  and  unto  life."  2  Cor.  5.  21,  "That  we 
might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God 
in  him."  Gal.  iii.  13,  14,  "That  we  might 
receive  the  promise  of  the  Spirit  through 
faith."  I  Pet.  ii.  21,  That  he  might  "  leave 
us  an  example."  Titus  ii.  14,  "That  he  might 
redeem  us  from  all  iniquity."  Gal.  i.  4. 
"That  he  might  deliver  us  from  this  evil 
world."  I  Thess.  v.  10,  "That  we  might 
live  together  with  him."  Here  it  will 
be  seen  that  we  have  eight  intents  and  re- 
sults of  Christ's  vicarious  death;  a  new 
access,  a  new  death  and  life,  a  new  spirit,  a 
new  example,  a  new  redemption,  a  new 
deliverance,  a  new  fellowship. 

Topical  preaching. — This  is,  of  course, 
preaching  from  a  topic,  a  scriptural  theme, 
in  which  the  testimony  of  the  Word  is  col. 


TYPES  OF  SEKMON-STKUCTURE.         43 

lated,  compared,  and  arranged  with  reference 
to  completeness  and  climax. 

There  are  certain  advantages  in  topical 
preaching: 

First,  the  aggregation  of  scriptural  testi- 
mony on  any  one  subject.  Single  texts  gen- 
erally present  only  a  phase,  others  are  need- 
ful for  a  complete  and  well  rounded  view, 
and  one  text  may  mislead  if  it  be  not  off-set 
and  interpreted  by  others. 

Secondly,  there  is  increased  range  and 
scope  of  view.  The  horizon  commanded  by 
a  single  text  is  comparatively  narrow,  but 
the  consideration  of  a  topic  may  often  lead 
us  to  a  point  from  which  we  command  a 
vaster  horizon. 

Thirdly,  in  the  application  of  the  truth, 
the  object  to  be  accomplished  by  the 
preacher  may  not  always  be  covered  by  a 
single  text ;  and  it  may  be  needful  beside,  to 
defend,  discriminate,  limit,  and  guard  from 
misconception  by  arraying  and  arranging 
the  testimony  of  several  texts. 

Fourthly,  as  to  conclusiveness  of  argu- 
ment, single  texts,  like  single  threads  in  a 
cable,  may  not  always  bear  the  strain  or 
tension  of  argument,  but  combined  they  are 
like  those  threads  brought  together  in  one 


44         THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

strand.  That  is  to  say,  that  where  a  single 
text  may  not  be  conclusive,  the  drift  or 
common  tendency  of  different  texts  com- 
bined may  lead  to  an  unquestioned  and 
unmistakable  result. 

There  arc  many  manifest  disadvantages 
and  risks  in  topical  preaching: 

P'irst,  the  risk  of  approaching  the  Word 
with  a  bias,  a  preconception  of  what  we 
wish  to  find,  a  prepossession  that,  if  it  does 
not  blind,  at  least  blurs  the  judgment. 
There  is  danger  of  warping  of  Scripture  to 
fit  the  crook  of  our  dogma.  Aristotle  was 
deductive;  Bacon  inductive.  Deductive 
method  starts  with  an  hypothesis.  The 
Baconian  starts  with  facts  and  makes  an 
induction  from  facts.  Hence,  we  can  under- 
stand how  the  Papacy  should  be  perversely 
Aristotelian,  starting  jvith  an  hypothesis  and 
adapting  and  adjusting  the  testimony  of 
Scripture  to  the  hypothesis.  Protestantism 
is  inductive;  it  aims  to  compare  Scripture 
with  Scripture,  and  so  infer  what  is  Scrip- 
ture teaching. 

Secondly,  there  is  risk  of  artificial  and 
superficial  arrangement  and  treatment  of 
texts,  and  the  disregard  of  the  usus 
loqiicndi  of   Scripture.     Some  exegesis  has 


TYPES  OF  SERMON-STRUCTURE.         45 

been  called  "grasshopper  exegesis,"  and 
even  "kangaroo  exegesis,"  because  of  the 
monstrous  leaps  that  it  takes,  disregarding 
all  intermediate  and  independent  testimony, 
to  lay  hold  of  similar  words  or  apparently 
similar  lines  of  thought. 

Thirdly,  the  risk  of  merging  the  discourse 
into  an  essay,  a  treatise,  or  a  theological  dis- 
cussion, and  so  losing  sight  of  that  oratorical 
feature  which  we  have  seen  to  be  the  high- 
est mark  of  a  true  sermon. 

Fourthly,  the  risk  of  dogmatic  controver- 
sialism,  more  anxiety  to  define  and  defend 
a  theological  position  or  creed  than  to  learn 
the  witness  of  the  Word  of  God,  and  so 
sinking  the  preacher  into  the  theologian. 

There  are  certain  rules  that  ought  to  be 
regarded  in  topical  preaching: 

First,  find  your  topic  in  the  Word  of  God. 
Let  the  topic  itself  be  a  Scriptural  one. 

Secondly,  give  your  topic  a  biblical  rather 
than  a  moral,  theological,  or  philosophical 
form  and  expression,  and  if  you  adopt  a 
biblical  terminology  be  sure  that  your  terms 
have  a  scriptural  meaning.  We  question, 
for  instance,  whether  the  words,  "effectual 
calling"  as  used  in  theology  have  any  such 
meaning  in  Holy  Scripture. 


4^         THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

Thirdly,  aim  at  a  scriptural  division  of 
your  topic.  That  is,  let  your  different  divi- 
sions be  suggested  by  different  but  related 
texts.  Thus,  your  topical  sermon  will  in  a 
sense  be  a  textual  sermon. 

Fourthly,  aim  at  a  complete  presentation, 
if  not  exhaustive,  at  least  exhaustive  for  the 
purpose  which  you  have  in  view. 

Fifthly,  hence  carefully  define  and  limit 
your  topic  and  treatment  before  you  begin. 
For  example,  if  you  are  treating  faith  as  a 
topic,  take  some  of  the  aspects  or  relations 
of  faith ;  for  instance,  faith  in  connection 
with  prayer,  faith  as  related  to  justification, 
sanctification,  and  good  works,  or  service. 

Sixthly,  never  dodge  a  difficulty.  It  is 
where  a  difficulty  is  to  be  confronted  that 
your  discussion  is  needed.  A  traveler  needs 
no  guide  in  the  Alps  so  long  as  his  path  is 
perfectly  plain  and  safe,  but  it  is  where  he 
comes  to  crevasses,  and  glaciers,  and  chasms, 
and  dangerous  places,  that  the  guide  is  nec- 
essary. Remember  that  for  every  difificulty 
there  is  a  Biblical  solution  ;  and,  instead  of 
evading  a  difficulty,  search  out  the  proper 
remedy  for,  and  resolution  of,  the  difficulty. 

Seventhly,  have  firm  faith  in  the  Word 
and    in   the  Si)irit   of  God.     Conceive  your- 


TYPES  OF  SERMON-STRUCTUKE.         47 

selves  not  as  the  defenders  of  weakness,  but 
rather  as  the  discoverers  of  the  refuges  and 
defenses  which  are  to  be  found  for  your- 
selves and  others  in  the  Word  of  God. 

Eighthly,  aim  at  climax.  Never  put  your 
strongest  argument  or  position  first  and  fore- 
most, but  carefully  arrange  to  conduct  your 
hearer  up  to  the  highest  and  most  convinc- 
ing summits  of  truth. 

Ninthly,  reserve  your  strength  for  the  less 
obvious  and  the  more  important  things. 
Assume  all  that  needs  no  argument,  prove 
only  what  needs  proof ;  and  what  is  obvious 
and  axiomatic  do  not  seek  to  prove,  but 
only  to  illustrate,  enforce,  and  apply. 

Tenthly,  Bible  readings  are  probably  the 
best  form  for  topical  treatment,  as  already 
suggested. 

Eleventhly,  the  whole  of  a  Gospel  or 
Epistle  may  be  very  successfully  treated 
under  the  head  of  the  topic  of  that  Epistle 
or  Gospel,  finding  the  key  word  and  key 
thought  which  furnish  the  solution  to  the 
enigma,  the  clew  to  the  maze,  the  key  to  the 
lock. 

Twelfthly,  a  series  of  topics  will  aid  and 
compel  the  treatment  of  practical  things. 
If  there  be  a  subject  that  you  conceive  to  be 


48         7  HE  DI J  ^INE  A  R  T  OF  PRE  A  CUING. 

desirable  to  treat  and  yet  which  you  cannot 
treat  in  its  solitariness  without  invidiousness, 
and  misrepresentation  of  your  motives,  it 
may  be  sometimes  successfully  treated  and 
inevitably  treated  in  the  course  of  a  series; 
as  for  instance  the  seventh  commandment, 
which  cannot  be  well  evaded  if  you  are 
preaching  a  series  on  the  Decalogue. 

Topical  discourses  really  comprehend 
various  sorts  of  sermons,  such  as  the  histor- 
ical and  biographical;  the  doctrinal;  the 
ethical,  moral,  and  practical;  the  occasional 
— such  as  are  suggested  by  current  events, 
Providential  judgments  and  interpositions; 
and  the  spiritual,  having  to  do  with  the 
secrets  of  the  highest  spiritual  life. 
We  give  a  few  examples  of  topics : 
What  is  it  to  become  a  disciple  of  Christ? 
There  are  six  great  steps  or  stages  in  dis- 
cipleship,  any  one  of  which  may  be  more  or 
less  distinct  or  definite,  but  all  of  which  exist 
in  the  case  of  every  true  or  normal  disciple. 
First,  conviction  of  truth.  Second,  contri- 
tion for  sin.  Third,  confession  of  sin  to 
God  and  to  man  so  far  as  man  has  been 
wronged  thereby.  Fourth,  conversion  from 
sin  and  unto  God.  Fifth,  confession  of 
Christ,   and    sixth,  consecration    to  service, 


TYPES  OF  SERMON-STRVCTURE.         49 

involving  separation  from  the  world  and  sin, 
unto  holiness  and  service. 

An  interesting  topical  study  might  be 
found  in  the  doctrine  of  angels  and  the  doc- 
trine of  demons,  as  presented  in  the  Scrip- 
ture, comparing  such  passages  as  Eph. 
iii.  10,  vi.  12,  and  Col.  i.  i6.  It  will  be 
found  that  there  are  apparently  seven  grades 
of  angels  in  the  hierarchy,  both  of  unfallcn 
and  fallen  angels. 

Again,  justification  by  faith.  There  are 
four  instances  in  which  the  same  sentence 
occurs  in  the  Bible — "The  just  shall  live  by 
faith" :  Hab.  ii.  4,  where  the  question 
is  answered,  "Whom  does  God  justify?"; 
Rom.  i.  17,  where  the  emphasis  is  on 
"just";  Gal.  iii.  11,12,  where  the  emphasis 
is  on  "faith";  Heb.  x.  38,  where  the  em- 
phasis is  on  "live,"  that  is,  be  kept  alive. 

Again,  the  law  of  God.  First,  it  is  inex- 
orable, it  allows  no  violation  even  in  the 
minutest  particular.  Second,  it  is  inevi- 
table; its  demands  and  sanctions  must  be 
supported.  Third,  it  is  irretrievable;  no 
transgressions  can  ever  be  atoned  for  by 
the  transgressor.  Fourth,  it  is  impeccable, 
demanding  absolute  purity  of  motives  and 
perfect  obedience. 


so        THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACIIIXG. 

Again,  i.  By  the  law  comes  the  knowledge 
of  sin.  2.  It  condemns;  it  cannot  justif}^, 
but  rather  increases  condemnation.  3.  It 
avenges,  it  works  wrath,  and  justifies  God. 
4.  It  conducts  (Gal.  iii  24),  "leads  us  to 
Christ." 

Another  example  of  topical  treatment 
may  be  found  in  the  subject  of  rewards : 

I.  How  they  consist  with  a  system  of 
grace.  2.  What  are  the  Divine  principles  of 
administration.  3.  What  is  the  time  of 
their  bestowment. 

Other  most  interesting  topics  ma)'  be 
found  in  Doing  the  will  of  God ;  Service  as 
related  to  the  Christian  life;  The  seven 
sentences  of  Christ  on  the  cross;  The 
Holy  Spirit's  work  in  the  believer:  i.  Sal- 
vation, convincing  of  truth,  regenerating  the 
heart,  leading  to  confession.  2.  Sanctifica- 
tion,  including  illumination,  mortification, 
vivification.  3.  Service,  involving  the  intel- 
lect, the  heart,  the  tongue,  and  the  handiwork. 

Typical  Preaching. — By  this  we  mean  to 
include  sermons  in  which  a  form  of  precept 
or  promise,  an  historic  event,  or  character, 
etc.,  is  treated  as  a  type  of  moral  or  spiritual 
truth,  whether  with  or  without  an  explicit 
'■•arrant  from  the  Scripture  itself. 


TYPES  OF  SERMON-STRUCTURE.  51 

We  are  not  disposed  to  deny  advantages 
of  this  method  of  preaching,  such  as:  i.  Va- 
riety in  presentation  of  truth ;  2.  The  ele- 
ment of  surprise  or  novelty,  awakening  the 
attention  of  the  hearer;  3.  The  play 
afforded  for  imagination  and  illustration ; 
4.  The  effect  in  training  to  elaborate,  care- 
ful, and  discriminating  thinking;  5.  Making 
permanent  impression  upon  the  memory  by 
associating  truth  with  a  picture  ;  6.  Stimulat- 
ing to  a  searching  study  of  the  Bible,  by  find- 
ing hidden  meanings.  7.  A  good  illustration 
sometimes  has  the  force  of  an  argument. 
Compare  John  iii.  19--2T.  "The  evil  doer 
hates  the  light,"  etc.  As  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes 
said,  "The  mind  of  a  bigot  is  like  the  pupil 
of  the  eye :  the  more  light  you  pour  upon  it, 
the  more  it  contracts." 

Compare  Lev.  xiii.  1-13,  the  law  con- 
cerning leprosy,  with  Francis  Bacon's 
remarks,  that,  when  the  leper  was  entirely 
unclean,  he  was  allowed  to  go  free,  but  when 
there  was  but  a  spot  of  leprosy  he  was  shut 
up  or  shut  out  as  unclean ;  which  Bacon  says 
illustrates  the  principle  of  morals,  that  the 
most  flagrant  and  open  sinners  do  not  so 
much  harm  as  those  that  under  an  appear- 
ance of  morality  hide  an  immoral  heart. 


52        THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

There  arc  also  disadvantages  and  dangers 
in  typical  preaching: 

1.  There  is  danger  of  a  fanciful  style  of 
pulpit  discourse. 

2.  There  is  risk  of  giving  undue  promi- 
nence to  the  poetic,  or  imaginative  element, 
degenerating  into  superficial  and  unpractical 
forms  of  discourse. 

3.  Risk  of  ingenuity  displacing  ingenuous- 
ness, elaborating  of  fancy  rather  than  exalt- 
ing of  truth. 

4.  Liability  of  treating  a  figure  or  simile 
as  though  it  were  an  analogy,  insisting  that  it 
shall  fit  the  truth  at  all  points,  thus  pressing 
what  is  designed  as  a  resemblance  into  a 
minute  correspondence  in  detail. 

5.  Risk  of  appealing  to  mere  curiosity  and 
love  of  novelty  rather  than  to  the  conviction, 
the  conscience,  and  the  will  of  the  hearer. 

6.  The  loss  of  oratorical  power  in  exces- 
sive poetical  and  imaginative  elaboration. 

7.  Uncertainty  as  to  discerning  the  mind 
of  the  Spirit,  substituting  one's  own  thoughts 
for  God's  thoughts. 

8.  The  consequent  risk  of  sacrificing  the 
unique  authority  of  God's  ambassador;  for 
in  proportion  as  we  fail  to  impress  others  as 
speaking   authoritatively,  we   are   unable   to 


TYPES  OF  SERMON-STRUCTURE.         53 

disarm  criticism,  which,  on  the  contrary,  we 
rather  challenge. 

9.  The  risk  of  exhausting  an  effective  illus- 
tration at  the  outset;  for  instance,  suppose 
Jonah  and  the  gourd  be  taken  as  the  theme 
of  a  typical  sermon,  on  murmuring  in  afflic- 
tion, and  idolizing  good  gifts  of  God.  How 
much  better  to  take  some  such  text  as  "  Love 
not  the  world,"  or  "The  fashion  of  this  world 
passeth  away,"  using  Jonah  with  the  gourd 
as  an  illustration  of  the  subject. 

10.  What  may  be  accepted  without  ques- 
tion when  used  as  an  illustration,  may  be  very 
questionable  as  a  source  from  which  to 
derive  a  doctrine,  or  statement  of  truth. 
There  is  a  difference  between  interpretation 
and  application  of  a  text. 

1 1.  There  is  consequent  risk  of  inversion  of 
the  laws  of  discourse.  The  foundation  of  all 
true  sermons  must  be  doctrinal  and  exeget- 
ical.  The  pinnacle  may  represent  the  imag- 
inative, the  illustrative  and  the  typical;  we 
want  rough  blocks  at  the  foundations,  huge 
square  stones  at  the  basis,  and  the  chiseled 
lance-like  spires  at  the  summit.  These  two 
cannot  exchange  places  without  an  inversion 
and  a  subversion  of  the  true  laws  of  preach- 
ing. 


54        THE  DIVIXE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

12.  Finally,  typical  prcachintr  is  apt  to  lead 
to  the  use  of  motto  texts,  which  disregard 
textual  connection  and  the  real  meaning  of 
Holy  Scripture,  and  separate  the  words  of 
God  from  their  obvious,  literal,  and  even 
spiritual  meaning.  We  have  known  Phile- 
mon 15  to  be  used  as  the  basis  of  a  funeral 
discourse:  "A  beloved  member  of  a  family 
removed  for  a  season  that  he  should  be 
received  back  again  forever,"  etc.  Such 
applications  of  texts,  as  mere  mottoes,  are 
always  of  questionable  propriety,  and  some- 
times decidedly  irreverent. 

We  add  a  few  rules  for  typical  discourses: 

1.  We  should  never  drawdoctrinal  teaching 
from  a  doubtful  source.  Base  )'our  statement 
Df  truth  on  an  unmistakable  foundation,  and 
then,  if  you  please,  use  types  to  represent  or 
illustrate  that  truth  in  new  and  striking 
forms.  If  you  are  treating  of  the  atone- 
ment, it  is  far  better  to  take  your  text  from 
Isa.  liii.  and  your  illustration  from  Lev.  xvi., 
than  to  reverse  the  process. 

2.  Typical  texts  are  always  safely  used  as 
such,  when  explicitly  declared  to  be  typical. 
e.  g.,  Gal.  iv.  24.  "which  things  are  an  alle- 
gory"; Heb.  ix.  8,  9,  24.  where  the  tab- 
ernacle  is   declared   to  be  a  type   of  higher 


TYPES  OF  SERMON-STRUCTURE.         5$ 

things;  John  i.  51,  where  the  obvious  refer- 
ence is  to  Jacob's  ladder.  The  story  of 
Jonah  and  the  great  fish  Christ  declares  to 
be  a  type  of  His  burial  and  resurrection.  In 
Revelations  viii.  the  incense  and  the  censer 
are  interpreted  as  referring  to  the  "prayers 
of  saints." 

3.  Types  are  safely  used  when  evidently, 
though  not  expressly,  treated  in  the  Word  of 
God,  as  typical.  Compare  Rom.  xi.,  the 
"olive  tree,"  which  is  one  of  the  finest  types 
in  the  New  Testament ;  also  the  priest's  gar- 
ment in  the  Levitical  dispensation,  all  of 
whose  parts  were  obviously  typical,  the  clasps 
with  the  onyx  stones  on  the  shoulder,  the 
stones  in  the  breastplate,  and  eveji  the  blue 
ribbon  in  the  hem  of  the  garment. 

4.  Figurative  language  is  sometimes  obvi- 
ously used  in  a  typical  sense,  as  in  Eph.  ii.  13, 
"Ye  who  were  sometimes  afar  off,"  where 
the  reference  appears  to  be  to  the  treatment 
of  the  leper,  in  the  ceremonial  dispensation. 
In  Heb.  xii.  18  and  following  verses,  "The 
mount  that  might  be  touched,"  the  com- 
parison of  Sinai  and  Zion  is  implied  ;  i  Pet. 
ii.  5,  "The  spiritual  house  with  spiritual 
sacrifices  and  priesthood  and  ceremonies," 
is  prefigured  in  the  tabernacle. 


5 6        THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACIIIXG. 

5.  Always  avoid  mixing  figures.  When 
you  are  using  a  type  keep  to  that  type,  and 
trace  the  correspondence  between  it  and  the 
truth  which  it  represents. 

6.  Study  carefully  and  closely  the  whole 
Bible  as  to  the  unannounced  types;  for  in- 
stance, forms,  such  as  the  circle,  the  square, 
and  the  cube ;  and  numbers,  such  as  3, 4,  7,  10, 
12,  40,  70,  144,  etc. ;  and  colors,  white,  black, 
red,  green,  blue  ;  and  the  compound  colors, 
purple  and  green,  etc. 

We  add  a  few  examples  both  of  good  and 
bad  typical  treatment,  leaving  the  reader  to 
make  his  own  discriminations. 

Isaiah  viii.  6,  "This  people  refuseth  the 
waters  of  Shiloah."  Here  is  a  fine  figure  or 
illustration,  of  hidden  sources  of  spiritual  life, 
their  concealed  channels  and  occasional  reve- 
lations.    Compare  Matt.  vi.  6,  and  Col.  iii.  4. 

In  Rom.  xi.  16-25  the  olive  tree  is  made 
the  type  of  Israel.  There  are  ten  cor- 
respondences here  which  are  quite  remark- 
able:  first,  the  root ;  second,  the  soil ;  third, 
the  branches;  fourth,  the  flower;  fifth,  the 
fatness;  sixth,  the  excision;  seventh,  the 
grafting;  eighth,  the  reingrafting;  ninth,  the 
husbandman;  and  tenth,  the  final  glory  and 
fruita<re. 


TYPES  OF  SERMON-STRUCTURE.         57 

The  Holy  Ghost  is  presented  under  the  em- 
blem of  FIRE ;  conveying  first,  light ;  second, 
warmth;  third,  life;  fourth,  purifying;  fifth, 
destroying;  sixth,  glorifying.  In  Lev.  xx. 
24-26,  the  law  of  separation  between  the 
clean  and  the  unclean  is  typical.  Again, 
Heb.  xii.  24,  suggests  comparison  of  the 
blood  of  Abel  and  the  Blood  of  Christ: 
the  blood  of  Abel  connected  with  accusa- 
tion and  vengeance  or  vindication,  and  the 
Blood  of  Christ  with  justification  and  recon- 
ciliation. 

Again  Eliezer  and  the  jewels.  Compare 
Gen.  xxiv.  53  with  John  xvi.  14,  15. 

Samson  and  the  lion's  carcass  in  Judges 
xiv.  14,  hints :  first  a  formidable  foe,  second 
his  roar,  third,  his  rending,  and  fourth,  the 
honey  in  the  carcass.  We  can  discover  here 
suggestions  of  the  following  truths.  First, 
we  must  meet  the  devil ;  second,  temptation 
does  not  come  unwarned ;  third,  it  is  pos- 
sible to  overcome  by  the  Spirit  and  the 
Word ;  and  fourth,  it  is  possible  to  get 
blessings  out  of  trials  and  strength  out  of 
temptation. 

Judges  xvi.  2 1  :  Samson  in  the  mill,  blinded, 
bound,  grinding,  mocked,  shorn ;  afterward, 
praying,   his   hair    grown,    his   strength    re- 


58         THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

newcd,  destroying  liis  enemies,  and  dying  in 
the  effort. 

Rev.  V.  the  Hon-lamb. 

2  Chron.  xxvi.  20,  Uzziah  and  the  leprosy. 
Compare  Luke  v.  8. 

Again,  the  manna:  falling  from  Heaven; 
the  dew  resting  upon  it ;  gathered  early  in 
the  morning;  only  so  much  at  a  time;  and 
during  the  whole  journey.  Compare  II  Cor. 
viii.  and  John  vi. 

Again  Marah  and  the  branch,  Ex.  xv. 
25.  Compare,  "who  comforteth  us  in  all 
our  tribulation." 

Interesting  typical  subjects  may  be  drawn 
from  historical  characters;  such  as  the  cor- 
respondence between  Christ  and  Adam, 
Joseph,  Joshua,  Moses,  David,  Daniel. 

I  heard  a  sermon  on  the  waters  in  Ezek. 
xlvii.,  in  which  the  ankles,  knees,  loins,  were 
treated  as  types  of  the  Christian's  walk- 
ing, the  Christian's  praying,  the  Christian's 
overcoming  all  lusts;  and  the  swimming  in 
the  water  was  made  to  represent  the  Chris- 
tian's ecstasy  in  Christ — a  very  questionable 
treatment,  to  say  the  least. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

THE   PREACHER   AMONG   THE   MYSTERIES. 

HE  limits  of  our  knowledge,  it  be- 
hooves all  of  us  to  get  clearly  in 
mind.  I  desire  now  to  add  some 
suggestions  to  fellow-students  of  the  Word, 
as  to  ivJiat  we  do  not  know,  and  it  must 
be  admitted  that  there  is  a  great  deal  in- 
cluded under  that  head. 

In  the  first  place  there  is  much  that  we 
are  not  intended  to  know.  Deut.  xxix.  29, 
tells  us  that  "The  secret  things  belong 
unto  the  Lord  our  God  ;  but  the  things 
which  are  revealed  belong  unto  us  and  to  our 
children  for  ever,  that  we  may  do  all  the 
words  of  this  law."  There  are  certain  things 
that  so  far  belong  unto  God  and  always  will 
belong  unto  Him,  as  that  they  will  always 
remain  secret.  If  God  made  any  attempt  to 
reveal  them  to  us,  we  should  not  have  the  ca- 
pacity and  receptivity  for  them  ;  but  there 
are  other  things  which  are  revealed,  and  they 
59 


6o        THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHIXG. 

belong  to  us  and  to  our  children.  These  are 
all  the  words  of  His  law.  His  command- 
ments are  clear  and  plain,  and  it  is  with  those 
that  we  have  principally  to  do. 

Now  note  the  singular  silences  of  Scrip- 
ture. The  inspiration  of  the  Word  of  God 
is  seen  not  only  in  what  is  openly  declared, 
but  in  what  is  not  said.  For  example,  there 
is  no  hint  given  in  the  Word  of  God  as  to 
when  the  age  of  moral  responsibility  begins 
in  children.  Truth  is  not  announced  which 
belongs  to  the  department  of  pure  science. 
Petty  rules  are  not  given  to  us  for  our  daily 
conduct,  constituting  a  sort  of  a  manual  for 
the  control  of  the  little  details  of  life,  but 
we  are  left  to  great  general  principles  that 
we  may  make  our  personal  application  of 
them  and  learn  independence,  by  using  reason 
and  conscience.  We  are  not  told  what  Paul's 
thorn  in  the  flesh  was  ;  otherwise,  those  only 
might  get  comfort  out  of  his  experience  who 
had  a  similar  thorn  :  as  it  is,  we  can  all 
find  help  in  God's  dealing  with  him.  What 
absolute  silence  is  preserved  with  regard  to 
the  future  body  of  the  wicked  in  the  res- 
surection  !  We  have  the  barest  hints  as  to 
any  original  form  of  Church  polity,  and 
even  those  are  so  vague  and  general  that 


PREACHER  AMONG  THE  MYSTERIES.   6 1 

they  accommodate  themselves  with  amazing 
flexibility  to  the  various  systems  of  church 
conduct.  Nothing  is  said  about  the  per- 
sonal features  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
the  color  of  His  eyes,  His  hair,  His  height 
and  form.  The  exact  time  of  Christ's  com- 
ing is  not  declared,  or  the  end  of  the  age. 
There  is  no  pronunciamento  vvitli  regard  to 
different  forms  of  worldly  amusements ; 
the  limits  of  propriety  are  set  upon  great 
general  principles.  Whether  any  of  the 
heathen  are  to  be  saved  without  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  historical  Christ  and  on  what 
principles  such  might  be  saved  ;  these  and 
other  things  are  left  without  expressed  teach- 
ing and  declaration  ;  and  a  discriminating 
mind  will  see  how  infinite  wisdom  guided  in 
silence  as  well  as  in  speech.  Swedenborg 
knew  nothing  o*.'  the  principle  which  is  at 
the  bottom  of  the  solemn  reserve  of  the 
Bible.  He  wrote  forty  times  as  much  as 
both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments  con- 
tain, telling  who  are  in  heaven  and  who  are 
in  hell,  and  endeavoring  to  make  up  for  the 
deficiency  of  Holy  Scripture  by  supplying  us 
with  conceptions  of  how  souls  in  the  future 
life  spend  their  time  and  occupy  them- 
selves.    We  find  in  his  works  an  illustration 


62         THE  DIVIXE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

of  the  famous  maxim,  that  nothing  that  is 
new  is  true,  and  nothing  that  is  true  is  new. 
His  visions  abound  in  the  novelties  of  spir- 
itualism and  the  speculations  of  an  irreverent 
science  and  a  dream}'  philosophy.  So  far  as 
he  has  sought  to  fill  up  the  gaps  of  Scripture 
he  has  only  made  the  whole  subject  ridicu- 
lous, furnishing  a  great  lesson  for  all  who 
seek  to  supply  speech  where  the  Bible 
keeps  silence. 

Secondly,  note  the  absence  of  attempts  to 
reconcile  paradoxes  in  Holy  Scripture,  both 
sides  of  seemingly  antagonistic  truth  being 
boldly  and  sometimes  almost  severely  stated; 
such  as  Divine  sovereignty  and  human  free- 
dom ;  such  as  the  privilege  of  individual 
prayer  and  yet  the  unchangeable  counsels  of 
Almighty  God;  such  as  the  trinity  of  the 
persons  of  the  Godhead,  and  the  unit)'  of 
the  nature  of  the  Godhead  ;  such  as  human 
inability  in  the  direction  of  moral  and  spir- 
itual life,  and  yet  responsibility  before 
Almighty  God.  These  paradoxes  result 
not  from  any  absolute  antagonism  of  truth 
with  truth,  but  from  the  infiniteness  of 
the  Divine  mind,  and  the  grandeur  of  the 
distance  between  God  and  man,  so  that 
what  appears  to  be  a  paradox  seems  such 


PREACHER  AMOXG  THE  MYSTERIES.    (>3 

only  because  of  the  limits  of  human  thought 
and  comprehension. 

Thirdly,  there  is  in  us  incapacity  to  un- 
derstand the  deep  things  of  God.  Coleridge 
has  long  since  drawn  the  distinction  between 
"comprehension  "  and  "  apprehension."  In 
I  Cor.  ii.  II  Paul  declares,  that  "no  man 
knoweth  the  things  of  a  man  save  the  spirit 
of  a  man  which  is  in  him  ;  even  so  the  things 
of  God  knoweth  no  man  but  the  Spirit  of 
God."  TRe  argument  is  that  only  the  spirit 
of  the  man  is  absolutely  master  of  the  man's 
mind  and  thoughts  ;  and  as  only  the  spirit 
of  the  man  understands  the  man,  compre- 
hends him,  so  only  the  Spirit  of  God  can  un- 
derstand the  things  of  God.  An  external 
observer  cannot  read  perfectly  the  Divine 
mind.  For  man  to  understand  God  would 
imply  equality  with  God,  as  for  one  man  to 
understand  perfectly  and  absolutely  the 
product  of  another's  genius  implies  a  genius 
equal  to  the  other.  The  very  fact,  of  the 
handiwork  or  product  of  another's  brain  or 
skill  being  beyond  me,  shows  his  superiority 
to  me  in  that  direction.  Therefore,  even  the 
apparent  contradictions  of  truth  in  the 
Word  of  God  may  be  the  indications  of  a 
higher  mind.      These  contradictions  result 


64         THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  FKEACIIIXG. 

from  the  lower  point  of  observation  and  the 
lower  measure  of  capacity.  There  is,  for  in- 
stance, in  mathematics,  a  well-known  prop- 
osition called  "  the  asymptote  of  the  h\-pcr- 
bola,"  and  in  connection  with  this  it  is  shown 
that  a  line  may  indefinitely  be  extended 
and  continually  approach  another  line  and 
yet  never  touch  it  ;  because  a  line  does  not 
represent  breadth  but  only  distance  between 
two  points,  and,  as  the  distance  between 
these  lines  is  constantly  divided  by  one 
half,  no  extension  of  the  lines  will  cause  them 
to  touch.  This,  to  a  boy  studying  the  rudi- 
ments of  arithmetic,  is  absolutely  incompre- 
hensible and  contradictory,  but  to  the  mature 
mathematician  it  is  the  demonstration  of  a 
fact.  The  same  truth  may  be  put  into  a 
more  comprehensible  form,  however,  but  on 
a  lower  level.  Here  is  a  son,  whose  age 
represents  one-half  of  the  age  of  his  father, 
he  being  twenty  }'ears  of  age  and  his  father 
forty.  Now  when  that  son  is  fort)-  and 
his  father  sixty  the  difference  in  age  will 
be  represented  not  by  one-half  but  by  one- 
third.  When  he  is  sixty  and  his  father 
eighty  it  will  be  represented  by  one-fourth. 
When  he  is  eighty  and  his  father  one  hun- 
dred   it    will    be    represented    by   one-fifth. 


PREACHER  AMOMG  THE  MYSTERIES.    65 

And  so  this  fraction  of  difference  will  con- 
tinually diminish,  but  will  never  become 
nothing.  This  illustrates  how  higher  truth, 
that  may  now  appear  paradoxical  and  con- 
tradictory, if  it  could  be  put  before  us  in 
such  a  form  as  to  be  apprehensible  and  even 
comprehensible,  would  be  seen  to  be  never- 
theless accurate  and  consistent. 

Fourthly,  our  present  experience  unfits  us 
to  interpret  the  great  things  of  God.  There 
are  things  that  can  be  understood  only  by 
the  interpretation  of  an  enlarged  experience. 
When  Robert  Moffat,  in  mission  tours  in 
southern  Africa  moved  upward  among  the 
tribes  that  had  no  contact  with  civilization, 
he  rode  in  an  ox-wagon  and  took  with  him  a 
steam  kettle,  both  of  which  w?¥^e  absolute 
novelties  to  them.  He  told  them  that  in 
his  own  country  they  laid  down  lines  of 
steel  and  on  them  drew  many  ox-wagons  with 
a  great  steam  kettle  at  the  head  of  them. 
That  was  his  way  of  describing  a  train  of  cars 
and  locomotive,  by  objects  which  they  had 
seen.  When  he  set  up  his  tent  and  from 
his  lantern  threw  on  the  canvas  an  image 
of  a  train  of  cars  in  motion,  they  said  "  Oh,  see 
there!  the  ox-wagons  and  the  steam  kettle!" 
When  he  came  to  England  and  brought  with 


(>(>         THE  DIl'IXE  AKT  OF  rREACHhXG. 

him  the  son  of  a  chief,  and  they  stepped  into 
a  train  at  Southampton,  the  young  lad  said, 
"  This  is  the  train  of  wagons  with  the  steam 
kettle."  There  are  natural  limits  of  reve- 
lation. God  has  to  use  in  the  description  of 
heaven  a  nomenclature  that  is  drawn  from 
the  experience  of  earth ;  to  use  terms  only 
applicable  to  heavenly  things  would  be  to 
make  Himself  unintelligible  to  man.  There 
are  limits  to  revelation,  found,  not  in  the 
power  of  God  to  declare,  but  in  the  power  of 
man  to  understand.  As  therefore  experi- 
ence grows  in  spiritual  things,  so  will  spirit- 
ual apprehension  grow.  This  is  what  Paul 
means  when  in  i  Cor.,  second  chapter,  he 
says,  "  Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard, 
neither  hc-^  entered  into  the  heart  of  man, 
the  things  which  God  hath  prepared  for 
them  that  love  Him.  But  God  hath  revealed 
them  unto  us  by  His  Spirit ;  for  the  Spirit 
searcheth  all  things,  yea,  the  deep  things  of 
God."  There  are  things  that  never  could 
have  been  understood  until  the  Spirit  of 
God  taught  inwardly  and  by  experience  ; 
but  under  such  guidance  all  Divine  things 
become  apprehensible,  and  in  a  measure 
comprehensible,  in  the  course  of  a  growing 
spiritual  knowledge  of  God. 


PREACHER  AMONG  THE  MYSTERIES.   67 

Fifthly,  we  should  therefore  find  out  the 
practical  limits  of  knowledge  and  be  content 
to  abide  within  them.  The  Rev.  James  A. 
Spurgeon  has  told  me  a  good  story  of  a  blind 
horse,  put  into  a  new  pasture.  The  master 
watched  him  until  he  became  familiar  with 
the  limits  of  the  new  territory.  The  horse 
walked  along  the  pasture  in  one  direction 
until  he  came  into  contact  with  a  brick  wall 
against  which  he  struck  his  head.  He  then 
turned  about  and  went  in  the  other  direc- 
tion until  he  came  to  a  ditch,  into  which  he 
stepped  ;  but  from  that  time  forth  he  never 
again  struck  the  brick  wall  or  got  into  the 
ditch.  He  had  found  out  the  actual  prac- 
tical limits  of  his  pasture,  and  he  kept  within 
them.  It  might  be  well  if  some  men  would 
learn  as  much  as  that  blind  horse  learned. 
I  add  a  few  further  suggestions: 
{a)  We  must  distinguish  between  specula- 
tive and  practical  truth.  A  Glasgow  profes- 
sor has  finely  said  that  all  our  modern  science 
does  not  adequately  account  for  the  bowlder 
in  geology ;  but  the  bowlder  is  a  fact  ;  and 
our  science  must  be  made  to  accommodate 
itself  to  the  fact.  We  cannot  deny  the 
bowlder.  So  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the 
fifteenth  chapter   of   Luke,   and   the  eighth 


68        THE  DIVIh'E  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

chapter  of  Romans,  and  the  fifty-third  chap- 
ter of  Isaiah  are  bowlders.  Their  existence 
cannot  be  denied,  and  our  speculative  think- 
ing must  somehow  adjust  itself  to  the  exist- 
ence of  these  great  undeniable  spiritual 
facts. 

{U)  Our  knowledge  is  mainly  of  importance 
as  it  concerns  our  witness.  And  hence,  we  do 
not  need  to  know  anything  which  docs  not 
somehow  concern  our  experimental  life  and 
our  practical  testimony.  Beyond  this,  knowl 
edge  might  gratify  curiosity,  but  it  could 
not  help  service.  If  we  eat  of  the  Tree  of 
Life,  it  matters  comparatively  little  that  we 
should  not  eat  fully  of  the  fruit  of  the  Tree 
of  Knowledge. 

{c)  Our  preaching  should  tlicrefore  be 
absolutely  confined  to  topics  with  regard  to 
which  we  have  some  experimental  and 
practical  acquaintance.  As  Christ  said,  so 
should  every  preacher  say,  "We  speak  that 
we  do  know."  How  grand  it  would  be  for 
the  Church  and  the  world  if  modern  preachers 
would  absolutely  confine  themselves  to  what 
they  know!  It  is  not  negations  but  positions 
that  the  world/ wants  ;  it  is  not  doubts  and 
intellectual  difficulties  that  assist  us,  of 
which  we  have  fully  enough  of  our  own  ;  it  is 


PREACHER  AMONG  THE  MYSTERIES.   69 

certainties  and  verities.  Let  men  tell  us 
wiiat  in  their  spiritual  life  and  outer  practical 
life  they  have  tried,  tested,  tasted.  These 
things  can  be  of  value  to  us,  but  all  their 
doubts  and  misgivings  can  only  be  snares. 
My  resolve,  at  the  outset  of  my  minstry,  was 
that  I  would  never  preach  on  any  subject  in 
which  God  did  not  give  me  in  my  own  inner 
life  some  special  illumination.  Such  a  resolve 
may  narrow  down "  a  man's  testimony,  but 
it  will  make  it  all  testimony ;  and,  as  one's 
experience  grows,  just  so  will  his  witness  in- 
crease both  in  extensity  and  intensity.  We 
need  this  personal  element  in  preaching, 
which  perhaps  makes  on  men  more  impres- 
sion, and  carries  with  it  more  conviction, 
than  anything  else. 

{d)  Hence  it  follows  that  w^e  should  never 
make  our  doubts  public,  for  it  is  plain  that 
the  only  effect  is  to  make  doubters  and 
skeptics.  We  advertise  and  give  currency 
to  objections  and  obstacles  to  faith  instead 
of  helping  feeble  faith  to  grow  stronger. 

{e)  Again,  it  is  always  easier  to  suggest  a 
difficulty  than  to  furnish  its  solution.  Says 
Archbishop  Whately,  "  Any  fool  can  ask 
more  questions  than  any  wise  man  can  an- 
swer ;  but  no  wise  man  can  ask  a  question 


70        THE  niVnVE  ART  OF  PRE  A  CHIANG. 

that  he  will  not  find  some  fool  ready  to  at- 
tempt to  answer."  Many  a  sermon  which  has 
ambitiously  attempted  the  demonstration  of 
great  truths,  such  as  the  existence  of  God, 
has  resulted  only  in  planting  objections  and 
doubts  in  the  minds  of  hearers.  A  comical 
story  is  told  of  a  man  who  preached  a  sermon 
on  modern  atheism  and  thought  he  had 
demolished  the  positions  of  the  atheists 
entirely.  A  simple  old  believer  who  was 
going  out  of  the  church  was  asked  how  she 
liked  the  sermon.  Well,  she  said,  she  sup- 
posed it  was  a  splendid  sermon,  but,  not- 
withstanding all  the  speaker  said,  she  did 
still  believe  in  the  existence  of  God!  She  had 
heard  and  caught  the  objections,  but  had 
not  felt  the  force  of  the  demonstration. 

(/)  ^'Ve  repeat  that  only  our  certainties 
help  others.  Faith  has  been  compared  to  a 
bee  on  a  flower  sucking  honey  from  the  necta- 
ries; Reason,  to  the  spider  spinning  a  web  out 
of  its  own  bowels,  on  which  it  may  itself 
walk  with  some  safety,  but  in  which  the  flies 
get  hopelessly  entangled.  Tell  people  what 
you  know,  if  you  want  to  help  them  to  larger 
knowledge  ;  keep  your  uncertainties  to 
yourself  until  by  God's  grace  they  are 
exchanged  for  certainties. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  PREACHER  AMONG  THE  CRITICS. 


^^HE  "  higher  criticism,"  so  called,  is  a 
general  term  for  the  method  of  sub- 
jecting the  Bible  to  critical  tests,  lin- 
guistic, scientific,  historical,  etc.  We  cannot 
reasonably  object  to  the  most  critical  search 
into  theWord  of  God,  but  only  to  the  method, 
spirit,  and  temper  in  which  such  search  may 
be  conducted.  We  are  told  to  "  search  the 
Scriptures  "  (John  v.  39  and  vii.  52).  It  was 
said  of  the  Bereans  that  they  searched  the 
Scriptures  daily  whether  those  things  were 
so  (Acts  xvii).  The  Greek  words,  which 
are  used,  are  different  in  both  these  places. 
Taken  together,  they  give  us^ grand  hints  as 
to  the  method  and  spirit  of  a  right  search 
and  research.  Peter  says  in  his  first  Epistle, 
iii.  15,  "Be  ready  always  to  give  an  answer 
to  everyone  that  asketh  you  a  reason  for 
the  hope  that  is  in  you." 

I.  But  while  this  is  our  duty,  we  must  care- 
71 


72         THE  D I  FIXE  ART  OF  TREACIIIXG. 

fullydistlngulsh  the  provinces  of  Reason  and 
of  Faith.  The  province  of  Reason  is  to  weigh 
evidence  in  the  scales  of  judgment  ;  and  the 
three  great  questions  which  Reason  has  to 
ask  and  answer  are  these :  First,  is  this  tlie 
Word  of  God?  Second,  if  so,  what  does  it 
teach?  And  third,  what  relation  has  its 
teaching  to  me  personally?  Beyond  this, 
Reason  has  absolutely  no  necessary  province. 
When  these  three  questions  are  satisfactorily 
answered.  Faith  comes  in  the  room  of  Reason, 
for  Reason  may  not  be  able  to  explore  the 
methods  and  reasons  which  guide  the 
mind  of  God.  We  are  to  be  obedient  to 
the  heavenly  vision,  even  though  the 
heavenly  vision  is  itself  a  nij'stery. 

2.  And  secondly,  the  Bible,  being  a  super- 
natural book,  demands  faith  for  any  true 
insight  into  its  mysteries.  We  are  told  in 
I  Cor.,  second  chapter,  that  "  the  natural 
man  receiveth  not  the  things  of  the  Spirit 
of  God,"  and  in  the  eighth  of  Romans,  that 
"  the  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God." 
The  natural  and  carnal  mind  are  incapaci- 
tated for  real  insight  into  the  Word  of  God  ; 
hence  there  is  need  of  a  supernatural  Spirit 
to  assist  us  in  the  right  understanding  of 
supernatural  truths.     In  the   first    verse  of 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  THE  CRITICS.    73 

the  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah,  the  prophet 
cries,  "  Who  hath  believed  our  report,  and 
to  whom  is  the  arm  of  the  Lord  revealed  !  " 
There  must  always  be  belief  before  there  is 
revelation,  a  reception  of  the  testimony  of 
God  before  there  is  a  higher  impartation  of 
understanding  and  insight. 

3.  We  must  learn  that  there  are  two 
worlds  ;  one  of  matter,  tested  by  the  senses  ; 
and  one,  of  the  soul,  tested  by  the  sensibilities. 
The  world  of  sense  is  explored  by  Science, 
History,  Intellect ;  the  world  of  the  soul  by 
Experience  and  Conscience,  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  scientific 
spirit,  when  it  exists  alone,  is  therefore  not 
a  revealing,  but  an  obscuring  medium.  The 
scientific  man  has  the  wrong  point  of  view 
when  he  seeks  to  explore  Scripture  simply  as 
a  scientist.  We  are  all  familiar  with  optical 
illusions  which  result  from  the  harmonies  and 
complements  of  color.  In  the  color  spec- 
trum, chords  seem  to  exist  as -in  the  musical 
scale :  the  complement  of  blue  is  orange,  of 
green  is  red,  of  yellow  is  violet ;  and  to  fix 
your  eyes  on  a  color  imparts  the  complemen- 
tary color  to  other  objects  when  the  glance 
is  turned  to  them.  So  there  is  prejudice  in 
scientific  habit.     Scientific  men  fix  their  eyes 


74         THE  DIVIXE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

SO  lonij  upon  one  subject  or  object  that, 
when  they  turn  to  another,  they  are  apt  to 
see  it  in  a  false  light.  With  regard  to  worldly 
wisdom,  we  are  divinely  told  that  .the  Lord 
knoweth  the  reasonings  of  the  wise  that 
they  are  vain.  A  mirror  that  is  turned 
downward  reflects  only  the  temporal  and 
the  material;  it  needs  to  be  turned  upward 
if  it  is  to  reflect  the  celestial  and  the 
spiritual.  John  Stuart  Mill  had  a  mother- 
less and  godless  childhood,  and  the  idea  of 
a  personal  God  was  never  allowed  from  any 
external  source  to  enter  his  mind.  He 
appears  never  to  have  cast  off  that  idea, 
for  he  seems  never  intelligibly  to  have 
had  it. 

4.  The  unbelieving  spirit  willfully  per- 
verts and  distorts  the  Word  of  God  ;  to  use  a 
Scriptural  phrase,  it  "wrests  the  Scripture." 
The  heart  makes  the  theology.  Our  diffi- 
culties are  seldom  born  of  the  head,  but 
mostly  of  the  evil  heart  of  unbelief,  which 
departs  from  the  living  God  ;  and  so  Dr. 
C.  F.  Deems  says,  "Believe  your  beliefs, 
and  doubt  your  doubts.  Never  make  the 
mistake  of  believing  your  doubts  and  doubt- 
ing your  beliefs." 

5.  Scientific  fact  is  to  be  carefully  distin- 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  THE  CRITICS.    75 

guished  from  skeptical,  or  even  scientific,  con- 
jecture. Many  things  assumed  by  scientific 
men  are,  like  evolution,  only  a  working  hy- 
pothesis. Yet  how  often  are  these  hypoth- 
eses assumed  to  be  established  scientific 
facts  and  laws  ! 

6.  It  is  unfair  to  decide  without  a  full  knowl- 
edge of  facts.  Many  antagonisms  to  Holy 
Scripture  are  based  upon  an  imperfect  knowl- 
edge of  historical  facts.  Thirty  years  ago  it 
was  said  that  Daniel  was  incorrect  in  mak- 
ing the  reigning  King  of  Babylon  to  fall  and 
be  slain  at  the  time  when  Cyrus  took  the 
city.  Subsequent  archaeological  disclosures 
show  us  that  Belshazzar,  who  was  actually 
reigning  at  the  time,  was  slain,  but  that  it 
was  Nabonadius  his  father  who  escaped,  and 
was  made  a  satrap  under  Cyrus.  Thus,  sub- 
sequent historical  disclosures  gave  the  key 
to  apparent  contradictions  existing  hitherto. 

With  much  of  the  modern  criticism  the 
fault  is  that  it  too  often  assumes  that  no 
facts  are  as  yet  unknown,  and  that  whatever  is 
not  apparent  has  no  actual  existence.  This 
is  an  imperious  assumption  and  presumption, 
and  it  is  quite  remarkable  how  discoveries  in 
archaeology  have  been  thus  far  confirmatory 
of  the  Divine   Word.     Socrates  said   of  his 


76         rilE  DIVIXE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

mission  in  Athens  tliat  it  was  to  bring  men 
from  ignorance  unconscious  to  ignorance 
conscious.  lie  said,  "the  difference  be- 
tween me  and  these  sophists  is :  I  know 
nothing  and  l<now  tJiat ;  others  know  nothing 
but  do  not  know  that."  His  knowledge  was 
limited,  but  their  ignorance  was  extensive. 

7.  Positivcness  and  emphasis  of  statement 
must  not  be  substituted  for  accuracy.  The 
Rev.  C.  A.  Berry  said  of  a  prominent  London 
preacher,  that  he  made  emphasis  to  do  duty 
for  originality.  History  is  a  great  commen- 
tary on  human  errors.  The  first  vessel  that 
crossed  the  Atlantic  by  steam  actually  bore 
a  document  proving  the  impossibility  of  such 
propulsion.  One  of  the  higher  critics  of 
America  declared  that  by  attacks  made  upon 
himself  he  was  goaded  on  to  justify  his 
assault  oil  the  Scriptures  as  having  in  them 
errors,  and  he  gave  four  examples  of  the 
errors  that  were  unmistakable.  A  subse- 
quent reviewer  has  shown  that  in  each  of 
those  four  cases  the  error  is  the  error  of  the 
critic  and  not  of  the  Scriptures  ! 

8.  Scientific  intolerance  is  as  offensively 
conspicuous  as  religious  bigotry  ever  has 
been.  The  authority  of  great  names  is  often 
substituted  for  accuracy  of  statement,  and,  as 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  THE  CRITICS.    77 

Dr.  Stalker  says,  the  greater  part  of  the 
modern  assaults  of  higher  criticism  on  the 
Bible  have  been  simply  borrowed  wholesale 
from  German  philosophers,  metaphysicians, 
and  neologists.  J.  Stuart  Mill  says,  "  No 
man  is  so  likely  to  see  what  you  do  not,  as 
one  who  does  not  see  what  you  do."  We 
venture  to  add  in  full  an  extract  from 
Delitzsch  on  modern  criticism :  "  Willful  con- 
tempt of  external  testimony,  and  frivolity  in 
the  treatment  of  historical  data,  have  from 
the  first  been  the  fundamental  evil  appar- 
ent in  the  manner  in  which  modern  critics 
have  handled  questions  relating  to  Isaiah. 
These  two  coryphaei  of  the  modern  critical 
school  [Hitzig  and  Ewald]  find  themselves 
hemmed  in  between  the  two  conclusions 
*  that  there  is  no  true  prophecy  and  that 
there  is  no  true  miracle.'  They  call  their 
criticism  *  free,'  but  when  it  is  examined 
more  closely,  it  is  in  a  vise.  In  this  vise  it 
has  two  magical  formularies,  with  which 
it  fortifies  itself  against  any  impression  from 
historical  testimony.  It  either  turns  the 
prophecies  into  merely  retrospective  glances, 
as  it  does  the  account  of  miracles  into  mere 
sagas,  or  myths ;  or  it  places  the  events  pre- 
dicted so  close  to  the  prophet's  own  time  that 


78         THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

there  was  no  need  of  inspiration,  but  only  a 
combination,  to  make  the  oversight  possi- 
ble. .  .  That  school  of  criticism  which  will 
not  rest  till  all  the  miracles  and  prophecies 
which  cannofbe  set  aside  excgetically,  shall 
have  been  eliminated  critically,  must  be  re- 
garded by  the  Church  as  self-condemned." 

9.  It  is  certainly  fair  to  test  any  system  by 
its  fruits.  The  severest  arraignment  of  mod- 
ern higher  criticism  is  found  in  this,  that  it 
is  proving  utterly  destructive  of  faith  in  the 
Word  of  God,  which  has  been  the  greatest 
boon  to  man.  From  the  middle  of  Elizabeth's 
reign  to  the  Long  Parliament,  the  British  peo- 
ple were  the  people  of  one  Book,  and  that 
Book  was  the  Bible,  and  aiiNthing  that  de- 
stroys the  confidence  of  the  people  in  the 
Bible  is  a  calamity.  We  have  heard  of  an 
American  preacher  of  whom  one  of  his 
hearers  said  that  he  was  a  master  of  analysis, 
but  good  for  nothing  in  synthesis  :  he  could 
take  the  Bible  to  pieces,  but  never  could  put 
it  together  again.  Modern  criticism,  so  far 
as  it  has  obtained  a  hold  upon  the  popular 
mind,  is  proving  destructive  of  faith,  and,  if 
the  present  growth  of  skepticism  continues, 
in  the  very  pulpits  where  higher  criticism 
is    now    preached,    we    shall    have    Deism 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  THE  CRITICS.    79 

preached,  as  was  true  in  the  first  half  of  the 
last  century.  We  sympathize  with  Joseph 
Cook  of  Boston,  who  said,  "  Pillow  my  head 
on  no  guess  when  I  am  dying."  One  of  the 
saddest  fruits  of  modern  criticism  is  found  in 
the  lowering  of  the  standard  of  faith,  in  stu- 
dents for  the  ministry.  It  was  said  of  a 
theological  seminary  in  America  that  it  had 
four  students:  one  was  an  agnostic,  the  sec- 
ond a  skeptic,  the  third  a  dyspeptic,  and  the 
fourth  a  fanatic.  Ministers  themselves  come 
together  in  their  ministerial  meetings,  and 
even  appear  in  the  presence  of  their  congrega- 
tions, to  promulgate  their  doubts.  What 
if  we  should  come  to  a  period  of  pulpit  minis- 
try, when  it  should  be  true  of  our  churches 
as  someone  says  of  one  of  M.  D.  Conway's 
lectures,  that  he  went  there  and  found 
"  three  persons  and  no  God."  Let  us  not 
hesitate  to  give  the  Bible  the  most  careful  and 
painstaking  search,  but  let  us  do  it  with  rev- 
erence, and  make  no  hasty  inductions  or  as- 
sumptions. Take  it  for  granted  that  yon  do 
not  know  everything  and  never  will.  Be 
sure  of  the  truth  and  hold  it  fast ;  take  no 
man's  "  say  so  "  for  a  final  authority.  Dis- 
pute every  inch  of  ground  when  you  are  de- 
fending the  faith,  and,  whenever  you  feel  the 


8o         THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

solid  rock  beneath  your  feet,  never  forsake 
it  for  shifting  and  treacherous  quicksands.* 
The  Rev.  J.  M.  Buckley,  D.  D.,  the  editor 
of  the  Christian  Advocate,  in  a  sermon  before 
Cornell  University,  gave  an  impressive  illus- 
tration of  the  dangers  attendant  upon  the 
acceptance  of  the  theories  of  higher  criticism. 
He  said  :  "  A  series  of  sermons  was  pub- 
lished   in    Scotland,  teaching    that    almost 

*  Rev.  Dr.  C.  II.  Waller,  in  the  English  Churchman, 
showed  the  very  dangerous  character  of  the  Higher  Criticism. 
A  method  of  study  which  logically  imputes  ignorance  to  the 
Prophet  of  whom  it  was  foretold,  "  Him  shall  ye  hear  in  all 
things,  whatsoever  He  shall  say  unto  you,"  is,  in  our  judg- 
ment, little  short  of  a  denial  of  the  one  Master  and  Lord. 
Dr.  Waller  says  : 

"  The  study  of  theology,  as  advocated  and  pursued  by  the  Oxford 
Regius  Professor  of  Hebrew,  means  that,  in  spite  of  the  Lord's  express 
statement  that  ''David  himself  said  by  the  Holy  Ghost'  the  words 
of  the  first  verse  of  Ps.  xc,  we  are  to  read  the  Psalm,  and  discuss  7vith- 
out prejudice — /.  c,  without  bias  in  either  direction — who  the  author 
was.  Dr.  Driver  h.xs  done  this,  and  has  decided  that  the  Psalm  was 
not  David's.  He  covers  his  decision  with  the  statement  that  '  the 
cogency  of  our  fiord's  argument  is  unimpaired,  so  long  as  it  is  recog- 
nized that  the  Psalm  is  a  Messianic  one.'  Who  does  not  see  that,  //" 
Da7'id  is  not  the  author,  David's  son  is  not  shown  to  be  David's 
Lord  ?  " 

Dr.  Waller  holds  up  the  saying,  "  without  prejudice,"  to 
the  light  of  experience,  and  makes  it  abundantly  clear  that 
in  studying  the  things  of  God  it  has  no  place.     He  says: 

"  Ever  since  the  fall,  when  man  gave  up  faith  in  God  for  trust  in  his 
and  our  great  enemy,  we  have  had  an  inborn  prejudice  against  God's 
truth,  mingling  itself  with  the  natural  love  of  truth  and  dislike  of  de- 
ception which  our  Maker  implanted  in  our  souls." 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  THE  CRITICS.   8 1 

everything  held  to  be  fundamental  to  Chris- 
tian faith  had,  by  the  researches  of  modern 
scholarship,  been  found  untenable,  and 
speaking  of  what  remains  in  an  indefinite 
way.  These  discourses  were  republished  in 
the  United  States.  Among  those  who  read 
and  accepted  them  was  a  woman,  in  the  city 
of  New  York,  of  great  intelligence  and  in- 
tellectuality and  of  high  culture.  A  year  or 
two  later  she  removed  to  a  suburb  upon  the 
Hudson  River,  continuing  to  attend  the 
Presbyterian  church,  but  frankly  informing 
the  pastor  that  she  had  lost  faith,  and 
attributing  the  change  to  those  discourses. 
Afterward  she  became  ill  and  died  of  a 
lingering  disease.  During  the  months  of 
steady  but  not  rapid  progress  to  the  grave, 
the  pastor  frequently  visited  her,  making 
every  effort  to  re-establish  her  faith  in  the 
simple  provisions  of  the  Gospel,  but  in  vain. 
To  the  last  she  said  that  she  knew  nothing, 
and  was  not  able  to  believe  anything  posi- 
tively. So  much  had  been  shaken  that  she 
was  not  certain  there  was  anything  that 
could  not  be  shaken. 

"  Less  than  a  year  after  her  death,  the 
author  of  those  sermons  was  summoned  to 
trial   for  heresy.     When   the  charges  were 


82         THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

submitted,  he  asked  a  little  time  for  recon- 
sideration and  submitted  a  statement  that 
when  he  prepared  those  discourses  he 
believed  them,  but  further  reflection  had 
convinced  him  that  he  had  erred  in  taking 
many  things  for  granted  that  had  not  been 
proved,  deducing  conclusions  that  were  not 
warranted  even  by  his  premises,  and  ex- 
pressing himself  in  an  unguarded  manner, 
and  that  he  desired  to  retract  several  of  the 
discourses  in  whole,  and  in  part  all  but  one 
or  two.  But  the  woman  who  had  given  up 
her  faith  in  the  essentials  of  the  Gospel  for 
faith  in  him  had  died  in  darkness!  " 

Dr.  McCosh  tells  a  similar  story  of  a  pro- 
fessor, who  in  his  earlier  career  trained  a 
generation  of  doubters,  whom  in  his  later 
life  he  vainly  sought  to  lead  to  faith. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE  PREACHER  WITH  HIS  BIBLE. 

IHE  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures is  now  one  of  the  command- 
ing themes  of  discussion. 

One  cannot  discourse  on  preaching  with- 
out touching  at  least  upon  flie  outlines  of 
this  great  subject,  because  it  is  just  now 
the  central  point  of  theological  controversy; 
and  yet  I  somewhat  hesitate  even  to  touch 
upon  it,  because  there  is  not  sufificient  space 
for  the  proper  and  exhaustive  treatment  of 
the  theme. 

In  the  first  place,  as  to  the  definition  of 
inspiration,  I  doubt  very  much  whether 
it  is  best  even  to  attempt  it,  for  no  attempt 
is  ever  made  in  the  Word  of  God.  We  may 
learn  in  the  Scripture  what  is  the  effect  of 
inspiration  on  the  Word  and  on  the  faith  of 
the  believer,  but,  as  with  faith  itself,  there 
is  no  proper  definition  of  inspiration. 
Several  things,  however,  are  obvious  : 


84        THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

First,  that  in  the  Word  of  God  it  is  God 
that  speaks  rather  than  man  (see  2  Pet. 
i.  20,  21).  The  Holy  Scripture  is  here  de- 
clared to  be  not  of  private  interpretation. 
Notice  the  Greek — the  expression  means 
"  loosing,  liberation,"  and  is  sometimes  ap- 
plied to  the  emerging  of  the  chrysalis  from 
its  shell.  This  loosing  out  of  mystery  is  not 
of  man,  but  of  God.  It  is  no  human  undoing 
when  the  truth  emerges  out  of  the  darkness. 
Paul  in  I  Cor.  ii.  13,  teaches  that  God  con- 
trols the  utterance  as  well  as  the  conception. 
"  Which  things  also  we  speak,  not  in  words 
which  man's  wisdom  tcacheth,  but  which  the 
Holy  Ghost  teachcth  ;  comparing  spiritual 
things  with  spiritual,"  or  expressing  spirit- 
ual conceptions  by  spiritual  terms. 

The  theory  that  God  inspired  the  con- 
cept and  not  the  words  will  not  answer. 
Burke  has  wisely  said,  as  to  the  words  in  a 
sentence,  that  every  word  is  one  of  the  feet 
upon  which  the  sentence  walks,  and  that  to 
shorten  or  to  lengthen  a  word  or  even  to 
change  its  place  in  a  sentence,  may  be  to 
divert  the  course  of  the  whole  sentence. 
Wordsworth  says  that  "  language  is  the  in- 
carnation of  thought."  intimating  that  it 
bears    the    same    relation    to   thoufrht    that 


THE  PREACHER  WITH  HIS  BIBLE.        85 

the  body  does  to  the  spirit,  not  only  its  ve- 
hicle but  its  means  of  expression  and  exhi- 
bition. Everyone  knows  that  the  most  hon- 
est reporter  may  not  give  proper  expression 
to  the  conceptions  of  one  whose  address  or 
sentiments  he  undertakes  to  represent ;  and 
in  all  critical  cases  we  insist  that,  after  "  an 
interview,"  we  shall  see  what  has  been 
written,  and  examine  the  forms  of  expres- 
sion lest  they  do  injustice  to  our  thought. 
Dr.  John  Hall  of  New  York  said  to  me  of 
Dr.  Briggs  that  he  was  himself  the  principal 
contradiction  of,  his  own  theory.  When  he 
delivered  his  famous  inaugural  address  at 
the  assumption  of  his  new  chair  in  a  well- 
known  theological  seminary,  he  was  taken 
to  task  for  the  sentiments  which  he  there 
expressed,  and  he  and  his  friends  defended 
his  position  on  the  ground  that  his  concept 
was  all  right  but  his  language  was  misunder- 
stood and  misconstrued.  Dr.  Hall  says,  if  a 
man  cannot  express  his  own  ideas  so  as  to 
be  understood,  how  much  less  could  he  ex- 
press the  ideas  of  Almighty  God  unless  God 
exercised  oversight  over  his  language. 

There  are,  with  regard  to  this  question  of 
"  verbal  inspiration,"  or  the  oversight  of  the 
very  words  of  Scripture,  five  important  and 


86        THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

significant  passages  in  the  Word  of  God  : 
Heb.  xii.  27;  Gal.  iv\  9;  John  viii.  58; 
John  X.  34-36;  Gal.  iii.  16.  If  these 
passages  are  examined,  it  will  be  seen 
that  in  the  first  instance  the  argument 
turns  on  one  phrase,  "yet  once  more."  In 
the  second,  on  \.\\q passive  voice  rather  than 
the  active  voice  of  a  verb.  In  the  third,  on 
the  present  rather  than  the  past  tense.  In 
the  fourth,  on  the  inviolability  of  a  single 
word ;  and  in  the  fifth,  on  the  retention  of 
the  singular  number  of  a  noun  rather  than  the 
plural.  Taking  the  five  passages  together, 
they  teach  us  that,  to  alter  or  omit  a  phrase, 
change  the  voice  or  mood  or  tense  of  a  verb, 
change  a  single  word  or  even  the  number  of 
a  noun,  is  to  break  the  Scriptures  ;  and  if  this 
does  not  come  close  to  verbal  inspiration, 
then  I  am  no  judge. 

Secondly,  the  prophets  did  not  in  many 
cases  understand  their  own  utterances.  See 
I  Pet.  i.  10-12,  where  we  are  told  that,  in 
prophesying  the  sufferings  of  Christ  and  the 
glory  that  is  to  follow,  they  themselves 
searched  to  know  what  or  what  manner  of 
time  the  Spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in  them 
did  signify.  This  precludes  the  possibility 
that    prophecy    or    pietliction     could    have 


THE  PREACHER  WITH  HIS  BIBLE.        87 

been  merely  a  sagacious  guesswork,  how- 
ever wisely  conducted  and  with  however 
much  intelh'gence.  It  entirely  banishes  that 
modern  theory  that  we  find  in  George  Adam 
Smith's  first  volume  on  Isaiah,  in  which  the 
nature  of  inspiration  under  the  old  covenant 
is  made  to  consist  of  a  revelation  or  sup- 
posed revelation  of  great  principles  of  God's 
moral  government,  such  as  that  Israel,  as 
God's  witnesses  must  be  saved,  and  yet 
iniquity  as  such  must  be  punished  ;  and 
that  in  connection  with  this  there  was  a 
sagacious,  accurate  observation  and  study  of 
the  men  and  events  of  the  prophet's  own 
period  ;  and  that  on  the  basis  of  these  two  he 
was  enabled  to  construct  the  predictions  as 
to  the  future  of  his  people.  This  is  a  com- 
mon method,  quite  too  frequent  with  so- 
called  scholars  and  higher  critics,  of  practic- 
ally eliminating  from  prophecy  the  super- 
natural element.  It  may  satisfy  the  critics, 
but  it  can  scarcely  satisfy  the  conditions  of 
prophecy.  How  shall  we  account  for  pre- 
dictions of  which  the  Spirit  of  God  declares 
that  those  who  wrote  them  did  not  under- 
stand them,  but  were  transmitting  them  to 
us  that  they  without  us  should  not  be 
made  perfect  ? 


88        THE  DIVIXE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

Thirdly,  inspiration  is  more  than  illumi- 
nation.  Illumination  is  dependent  upon 
the  attestation  of  internal  consciousness; 
but  inspiration  is  dependent  upon  the  ex- 
ternal attestation  of  miracle  and  fulfilled 
prediction.  Illumination  can  be  certified 
only  to  the  illumined  man;  inspiration  may 
be  certified  to  the  hearer  and  reader. 

I'ourthly,  inspiration  demands  infallibil- 
ity; otherwise  we  have  no  final  court  of 
arbitration  and  appeal.     There  is  no 

"Judge  to  end  the  strife. 
When  wit  and  wisdom  fail." 

We  all  need  these  final  standards  to  settle 
disputed  questions,  as  in  weights  and  meas- 
ures; as  in  the  correction  of  our  watches  by 
chronometers,  and  chronometers  by  God's 
clock  of  the  ages,  which  never  fails  of  com- 
ing to  the  exact  second  with  its  index  hand, 
at  the  exact  time. 

Fifthly,  the  written  Word,  like  the  living 
Word,  consists  of  abody  antl  a  soul.  As  the 
body  of  Christ  was  conceived  in  the  womb 
of  the  Virgin,  but  by  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  so  the  written  Scriptures  are  con- 
ceived in  the  womb  of  the  human  intel- 
lect, but  by  the  power  of  the  Spirit  of  God. 


THE  PREACHER  IVITH  HIS  BIBLE.        89 

The  narrative  in  Daniel,  about  the  man's 
handwriting  on  the  wall  of  the  King's 
palace,  is  a  fine  illustration  of  inspiration. 
We  do  not  dispute  the  human  hand  that 
does  the  writing,  but  we  claim  that  the 
writing  is  God's  writing  ;  and  that  when  it  is 
written  no  man  can  add  thereto  or  subtract 
therefrom  ;  and  all  that  we  then  need  is  the 
interpreter  to  come  and  read  and  explain  the 
writing  as  the  Holy  Spirit  shall  enlighten 
his  experienced  soul  to  do.  So  in  each  case 
there  is  an  immaculate  conception  and  a 
true  incarnation  of  the  mind  and  spirit  of 
God. 

Sixthly,  we  have  no  hesitation  in  admit- 
ting that  inspiration  is  an  incomprehensible 
mystery.  Compare  John  iii.  8,  where  the 
Spirit  is  compared  to  the  wind,  invisible, 
incomprehensible,  indispensable,  independ- 
ent of  man's  will,  irresistible  in  its  action, 
yet  indisputable  in  its  operations.  Even  so 
the  Spirit  of  God  in  the  Scriptures  may 
be  described  by  the  same  terms. 

Note,  however,  the  following  discrimina- 
tions : 

First,  of  course  inspiration  is  claimed  only 
for  the  original  dociunents.  It  is  granted 
that   errors  may  occur  in   copying  ;  inten- 


90         THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACH IXG. 

tional  and  unintentional  changes ;  those 
designed  by  officious  scribes,  and  those 
which  are  careless  and  accidental.  Some 
changes  undoubtedly  have  occurred,  and 
in  some  cases  it  has  been  discovered  that 
changes  in  letters  are  due  to  the  overlapping 
of  different  characters,  both  in  the  Greek  and 
in  the  Hebrew,  one  pressing  against  the 
other  and  leaving  its  impression  upon  the 
other.  In  this  way  "  of"  has  been  changed 
into  "  ^cof,"  the  contraction  for  which  is  ^f, 
the  cross-mark  on  the  Q  leaving  its  impression 
on  the  o.  All  the  punctuation  marks,  the 
italicized  words,  the  varieties  of  rendering, 
the  imperfcctness  of  translation,  are  the 
work  of  man,  and  whatever  fault  is  found  in 
connection  with  them  cannot  be  charged  to 
the  original  document.  We  set  up  the 
Scriptures  in  the  original  before  the  mirror 
of  modern  language  and  we  get  a  reflection 
in  that  mirror.  The  reflection  may  be  more 
or  less  perfect,  but  the  reflection  is  sufifi- 
cicntly  adequate  for  the  purpose  for  \\liich 
it  is  to  be  employed,  like  the  reflection  of 
one's  own  face  in  a  glass. 

2.  Secondly,  inspiration  is  properly  claimed 
for  the  5r;///;//r;//j  wliencvcr  God  speaks  or  acts 
or  approves  r  but  only  for  the   record,  and 


THE  PREACHER  WITH  HIS  BIBLE.        91 

not  the  sentiments,  where  simply  a  narra- 
tive is  given  without  direct  or  indirect  signs 
of  God's  approbation.  We  claim  inspiration 
for  the  sentiments,  first  of  all,  where  God 
Himself  is  the  speaker.  Secondly,  where 
the  prophets  profess  and  claim  to  speak  in 
His  name.  Thirdly,  where  Christ  refers  to 
utterances  as  inspired,  quoting  from  the 
Old  Testament,  the  Psalms,  Isaiah,  Deuter- 
onomy,  etc. 

We  cannot  claim  such  inspiration  for  the 
sentiment  or  the  conceptions  expressed : 
First,  where,  manifestly,  error  is  taught,  as 
when  Satan  or  evil  men  are  speaking;  or 
godly  men,  under  manifestly  a  wrong  and 
carnal  feeling.  No  one  claims  that  Abraham 
was  inspired  in  lying  about  Sarah  ;  or  that 
Paul  was  inspired  when  he  said  "  God  shall 
smite  thee,  thou  whited  wall  "—which  may 
have  been  a  case  of  intemperate  anger,  for 
Christ  said  under  the  same  circumstances 
very  meekly  and  mildly,  "  If  I  have  spoken 
evil,  bear  witness  of  the  evil:  but  if  well, 
whysmitest  thou  me?"  In  such  cases  we 
have  simply  a  record  of  events  without  any 
hint,  direct  or  indirect,  of  Divine  sanction. 

The    question    may   properly  arise   as   to 
how  far  certain   recorded   events  bear   the 


92         THE  DIVIXE  ART  OF  PREACHIXG. 

impress  of  Divine  approbation.  Where 
ungodly  people  speak,  or  godly  people 
speak  without  Divine  authority,  it  is  no 
irreverence  to  raise  the  question  of  inspira- 
tion, Peter,  in  the  first  chapter  of  Acts, 
in  the  choice  of  Matthias  as  an  Apostle, 
may  have  been  officious,  not  waiting  for  the 
pentecostal  outpouring  of  the  Spirit  of  God, 
and  so  venturing  to  fill  the  apostolic  gap 
without  Divine  direction.  The  woman  of 
Samaria  did  not  necessarily  in  her  conversa- 
tion with  Jesus  speak  the  words  of  God  ;  we 
have  a  record  of  her  conversation,  but  there 
is  no  hint  that  her  sentiments  were  in- 
spired. And  so  of  Job  and  his  three 
friends,  and  even  Elihu ;  their  utterances 
pertain  to  a  narrative  which,  as  a  narrative 
is  inspired,  but  all  the  sentiments  of  whicli 
may  not  be  the  sentiments  of  God,  and  some 
of  which  sentiments  are  even  repudiated 
when  God  Himself  speaks. 

Again,  where  no  sanction  is  ivi plied,  it 
is  not  an  irreverence  to  question  inspira- 
tion. The  plan  of  Ecclesiastes  is  obvious. 
Solomon  is  represented  as  conducting  an 
experiment  on  scientific  principles,  hav- 
ing roj'al  resources  with  which  to  conduct 
it  ;  and  he  acknowledges,  before  the  book  is 


THE  PREACHER  WITH  HIS  BIBLE.        93 

concluded,  the  failure  of  his  experiment,  and 
the  necessity  of  introducing  a  Divine  factor 
in  order  to  the  explanation  of  human  enig- 
mas and  the  solution  of  the  problems  of  life. 
If  this  plan  of  the  book  be  a  true  plan,  then 
many  of  the  utterances  of  Solomon,  as  a  dis- 
appointed man  under  the  failure  of  his  ex- 
periments, while  they  represent  the  true  state 
of  mind  in  him  may  not  represent  a  Divine 
conclusion  ;  the  plan  of  the  book,  therefore, 
must  determine  with  us  how  far  the  senti- 
ments of  Solomon,  expressed  there,  are  to 
be  taken  as  reflecting  the  Divine  mind.  So 
with  regard  to  Solomon's  Song.  The  most 
satisfactory  scheme  of  this  poem  is  that  of 
Godet,  and  others,  which  constructs  the 
book  on  somewhat  this  plan :  Solomon 
seeks  to  allure,  and  to  lead  into  his  royal 
harem,  a  young  maiden  who  is  betrothed  to 
a  poor  shepherd;  Solomon  surrounds  her 
with  all  manner  of  inducement,  which  she 
repels  and  resists  that  she  may  return  to 
her  true  lover.  If  we  accept  this  scheme  of 
the  poem,  many  of  the  sentiments  of  Solo- 
mon's song  will  become  the  seductive  utter- 
ance of  worldly  allurement,  while  others  be- 
come the  reply  of  God's  true  believer  to  all 
these  seductions.     It  is  quite  plain  that  the 


94        THE  DIVIXE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

classification  of  the  separate  utterances  of 
this  Love  Song  will  depend  on  the  party  to 
whom  we  attribute  them.  The  question  will 
then  be,  who  in  each  case  is  the  speaker,  and 
whether  the  speech  is  the  product  of  carnal 
or  of  spiritual  desire.  It  is  here  that  a  rev- 
erent criticism  may  do  a  Bible  student  the 
highest  benefit,  in  helping  him  to  a  correct 
and  spiritual  apprehension  of  the  Divine 
plan  in  the  sacred  writings.  It  would  be  a 
useful  thing  to  take  a  copy  of  the  Bible  ami 
go  through  it  from  beginning  to  end,  mark- 
ing it  with  some  reference  to  such  utterances 
and  sentiments  as  are  manifestl}-  an  expres- 
sion of  the  Divine  mind,  and  indicating 
those  portions  of  the  Scriptures  which  are 
guaranteed  only  as  accurate  narratives  of 
events. 

Thirdly,  an  adequate  philosophy  of  inspi- 
ration is  not  needful.  Human  wisdom  often 
begins  as  a  mere  vassal  with  regard  to  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  then  it  aspires  to  be  a  con- 
sort, and  finally  becomes  a  usurper,  arrogant 
in  tone  and  insolent  in  assumptions  and 
professions.  But  the  word  still  survives,  as 
in  the  motto  of  the  W'aldensian  Church, 
Trittiutur  viallci,  ronaiict  iiuus—\.\\c  mallets 
or  hammers  are  broken,  but  the  anvil  still 


THE  PREACHER  WITH  HIS  BIBLE.        95 

stands.  The  Word  of  God  survives  all 
the  attacks  and  assaults  of  its  foes,  because 
of  inherent  and  unalterable  value  and  in- 
spiration. It  does  not  always  follow  that 
there  is  no  reason  for  that  which  is  found 
in  the  Word,  because  no  reason  is  apparent. 
Fourthly,  no  doubt  there  is  a  progress  of 
doctrine  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  A  promi- 
nent theological  instructor  has  said,  and  the 
statement  is  a  shocking  one,  that  "  immoral- 
ities are  commended  and  commanded  in  the 
Bible."  This  we  utterly  deny.  It  is  true 
that  sometimes  they  are  recorded,  as  in  the 
case  of  Lot  and  his  daughters  ;  that  some- 
times they  are  permitted  for  a  time,  as  was 
the  system  of  polygamy  and  also  of  divorce 
under  the  administration  of  Moses.  They 
are  sometimes  regulated  with  reference  to 
their  immediate  amelioration  and  ultimate 
abolition.  Sometimes  they  are  "winked, 
at  "  because  of  the  ignorance  and  incapacity 
of  men  as  to  the  understanding  and  concep- 
tion of  a  high  ideal.  And  sometimes  they 
are  not  properly  immoralities  at  all  because 
the  light  was  inadequate,  and  on  the  meas- 
ure of  light  depends  the  measure  of  human 
responsibility.  To  know  and  not  to  do  con- 
stitutes the  great  aggravation  of  sin.    For  in- 


96         THE  DIVIXE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

stance,  as  to  what  are  called  the  imprecatory 
Psalms,  there  was  almost  no  conception  in 
the  ancient  Hebrew  mind  of  the  purpose  of 
God  as  to  the  conversion  of  the  race  ;  and 
hence,  those  who  were  outside  of  the  Hebrew 
Church  were  looked  upon  even  b)'  the  most 
spiritual  and  pious  as  simply  so  many  ob- 
stacles to  the  progress  of  the  truth.  Indeed 
they  were  such,  and  the  prayer  for  their 
utter  defeat  and  destruction  was  the  natural 
and  only  possible  pra)'er  with  devout  souls, 
zealous  for  God  and  His  truth,  to  whom  it 
had  not  been  revealed  that  God  had  a  higher 
ultimate  purpose  in  the  salvation  of  other 
nations.  It  is  supposable  that  in  the  millen- 
nial age  there  may  be  an  unfolding  of  some 
truths  which  now  are  unknown  by  us,  or 
most  dimly  perceived.  Such  new  revealings 
of  truth  might  change  the  character  even 
of  some  of  our  prayers. 

Fifthly,  I  feel  bound  to  add  that  the 
scientific  accuracy  of  the  Word  of  God  is  a 
singular  attestation  of  its  inspiration.*  Here 
we  have  the  oldest  extant  book,  reaching 
beyond  the  period  of  authentic  history  into 

*  This  is  so  important  a  subject  that  I  have  given  to  it  a 
separate  treatment  in  another  volume,  "Many  Infallible 
Proofs,"  to  which  I  must  refer  the  reader. 


THE  PREACHER  WITH  HIS  BIBLE.        97 

the  age  of  fable,  when  there  was  no  accurate 
science,  when  astronomy  was  astrology  and 
chemistry,  alchemy ;  and  yet  not  one  of 
those  absurdities  which  found  their  way  into 
all  the  other  "sacred  books,"  and  the  writ- 
ings of  even  such  philosophers  as  Plato  and 
Aristotle,  found  their  way  into  the  sacred 
book  of  God  ! 

The  Bible  is  not,  and  ought  not  to  be, 
a  scientific  book.  It  is  primarily  and  prin- 
cipally a  revelation  of  moral  and  spiritual 
truth.  It  leaves  science  for  man  to  explore, 
and  he  is  to  reach  its  certainties  through  ex- 
periments and  blunders.  It  leaves  the  human 
intellect  to  attain  knowledge  on  such  sub- 
jects by  a  law  of  development.  The  Word 
of  God  could  not  treat  scientific  subjects 
without  diverting  man's  attention  to  side 
issues.  And  yet,  when  scientific  matters  are 
incidentally  referred  to,  an  elastic,  flexible 
phraseology  is  used  which,  without  either 
contradicting  or  revealing  scientific  facts, 
hides  within  its  form  of  expression  a  germ  of 
truth,  which  expands  to  fit  the  dimensions  of 
future  discoveries.  Take  for  example  the 
word  *'  expanse;"  translated  "  firmament,"  in 
Genesis.  No  Hebrew  word  could  have  been 
selected  by  a  modern  scientist  better  describ- 


98        THE  DIVIXE  ART  OF  PRE  ACHING. 

ingthc  actual  nature  of  the  expanse  between 
earth  and  sky  which  was  not  then  under- 
stood ! 

Observe  that  not  one  well  established  fact 
of  science  is  found  to  be  absolutely  unrec- 
oncilable  with  the  explicit  teaching  of 
Scripture.  The  eighty  tiieories  of  French 
infidels,  which  less  than  a  century  ago 
threatened  to  demolish  the  Word  of  God, 
have  been  exploded — every  one  of  them — 
and  the  Word  still  stands,  like  Gibraltar's 
Rock. 

On  the  other  hand,  let  Txxxy  candid  student 
compare  the  Bible  teachings  as  to  Creation 
with  the  ancient  absurdities  of  Hindu  cos- 
mogony on  one  hand,  and  the  discoveries  of 
geology  on  the  other.  Let  him  note  the 
order  of  created  life,  and  see  how  it  tallies 
exactly  with  the  discoveries  of  comparative 
anatomy — advancing  from  fish  to  reptile, 
reptile  to  bird,  bird  to  mammal,  and  mammal 
to  man  !  Compare  Ps.  cxix.  33  with  the 
physiological  fact  about  the  heart  of  the  stag- 
hound,  the  fleetest  animal  in  the  chase,  etc. 

Let  the  astronomer  tell  us  how  Jeremiah 
was  led  (xxxiii.  22)  to  describe  the  host  of 
stars  as  equally  countless  with  the  grains  of 
sand,  although  Hipparchus  and  Ptolemy  both 


THE  PREACHER  WITH  HIS  BIBLE.        99 

counted  and  catalogued  the  stars  as  not 
much  exceeding  3000  ;  and,  let  us  remember 
that,  until  Galileo  turned  his  primitive  tele- 
scope heavenward,  the  first  idea  of  the 
countless  host  of  stars  never  dawned  on  the 
human  mind. 

Job  xxxviii.  contains  more  scientific  hints 
than  all  uninspired  literature  up  to  the  fif- 
teenth century. 

As  to  natural  philosophy,  how  was  Moses 
led  to  describe  the  creation  of  light  as  by  a 
fiat — "  Let  light  be,  and  light  was  !  "  Every- 
thing else  is  "  made,"  but  light  is  commanded 
to  shine.  And  who  taught  David  that  light 
is  visible  music,  and  inspired  him  to  use  the 
very  word  to  describe  the  vibrations  of  light 
that  was  applied  to  the  vibrations  of  a 
musical  chord  ?  Compare  Ps.  Ixv.  8,  xix.  1-6, 
and  Job  xxxviii.  7.  Tyndall  and  Huxley 
might  envy  such  accuracy  of  language  to 
describe  the  latest  discoveries! 

Who  taught  Job,  long  before  Galileo,  that 
the  atmosphere  had  weigJit  (Job  xxviii.  25)  ? 
Who  led  Solomon  to  hint  that  the  capri- 
cious winds  have  their  circuits  (Eccles.  i.  6) 
and  that  the  highest  parts  of  the  earth  are 
the  oldest  (Prov.  viii.  26)  ? 

Who  tausfht  Solomon  that  the  ant  has  in 


too      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

the  brain  only  ^ray  matter,  and  so  is  wisest 
of  all  animals  (Prov.  vi.  6-8);  and  that  there 
is  a  cistern  or  receptacle,  and  a  fountain  or 
impulsive  ventricle,  in  the  heart,  and  that 
the  blood  is  pumped  up  through  the  veins 
to  be  discharged  again,  as  water  by  a  wheel 
at  a  spring  in  the  Orient  (Eccles.  xii.  1-12)  ? 
Cosmogony,  comparative  anatomy,  eth- 
nology, astronomy,  chemistry,  natural  phi- 
losophy, geology,  entomology,  physiology 
and  psychology,  paleontology  and  archaeol- 
ogy— these  and  other  kindred  sciences  come 
with  their  latest  discoveries  to  the  Holy 
Oracle,  and  God  points  them  to  words  writ- 
ten a  hundred  years,  perhaps  a  thousand 
years,  before  authentic  history  began  to  be 
written,  or  science  had  its  true  birth  ;  and  yet 
in  those  words  are  found  the  germs  of  all 
modern  scientific  discoveries  and  knowledge. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE   PREACHER   IN   HIS   PULPIT. 

ND  now,  gentlemen,"  said  the  first 
President  of  the  Royal  Academy,  as 
he  closed  his  lectures  on  Art,  "  I 
have  but  one  name  to  present  to  you  :  it  is 
the  name  of  the  incomparable  MICHAEL 
AngelO." 

The  central  vital  secret  of  all  successful 
preaching,  in  its  last  analysis,  is  the  con- 
stant presentation  of  the  One  and  only 
'■'■  Name^  under  heaven  given  among  men, 
v^rhereby  we  must  be  saved."  All  power 
must  primarily  and  ultimately  depend  upon 
the  faithful  preaching  of  Christ  crucified; 
and  to  this  all  means  and  methods  must  be 
tributary  and  subsidiary.  But  terms  are  not 
always  used  intelligibly,  and,  as  possibly  we 
have  drifted  more  or  less  from  our  original 
moorings,  it  may  be  well  to  ask  what  is  meant 
by  "  preaching  the  gospel  "?     For  some  rea- 

"  Acts  iv.  12. 


lOI 


102      THE  DiriXE  ART  OF  PREACHIA'G. 

son  the  pulpit  often  fails  to  reach,  touch, 
move,  and  mold  men  for  a  better  life,  and 
carries  no  converting  power.  Paul  has  left 
us  his  model  for  effective  preaching,  and 
hinted  somewhat  as  to  its  matter,  manner, 
and  mission.' 

Its  subject-matter  is  "  Christ  crucified." 
The  medicine  of  God  for  all  the  wants  and 
woes  of  man  is  the  cross ;  to  preach  the 
gospel  is  to  lift  up  the  Lamb  of  God  so 
that  all  may  look  and  live.  Even  John  the 
Baptist  was  content  to  be  only  a  voice  cry- 
ing, a  finger  pointing  :  "  Behold  the  Lamb 
of  God." 

The  very  heart  of  the  gospel  is  a  fact. 
"He  bare  our  sins."*  That  fact  is  closely 
linked  with  all  other  effects,  such  as  our 
death  unto  life,  our  bringing  unto  God,  our 
redemption  from  sin,  our  deliverance  from 
the  world."  This  grand  fact  is  therefore 
the  central  theme  of  all  true  preaching,  the 
stem  around  which  crystallizes  the  science 
of  salvation.  To  lift  up  Christ  as  an  ex- 
ample, the  model  for  a  "  reconstructed  man- 
hood," is  not  enough.  The  rallying-point 
and  the  radiating-point  of  both  doctrine  and 

'  I  Cor.  i.  17-31. 

'  I  Pet.  ii.  24.  iii.  t8  ;  Titus  ii.  14  ;  Gal.  i.  4. 


THE  PREACHER  IN  HIS  PULPIT.       103 

life  is  the  CROSS,  that  golden  milestone  in 
the  Forum  of  the  Ages,  where  all  roads 
meet.  From  all  quarters  sinners,  seeking  to 
be  saved,  must  come  to  it ;  to  all  quarters, 
saints  seeking  to  save,  must  move  from  it; 
and  on  our  way  to  the  cross  as  penitent 
sinners,  or  on  our  way  from  the  cross  as 
witnessing  saints,  we  find  every  need  of  man 
met  and  every  vital  question  answered. 

"Christ  crucified"  is,  however,  no  narrow 
theme.  As  the  God-man,  all  that  is  in  God 
is  in  Him  ;  and  all  that  is  in  man  is  in  Him, 
save  sin  ;  and,  combining  both,  He  adjusts  all 
the  mutual  relations  of  God  and  man.  From 
His  cradle  to  His  cross,  and  from  His  cross 
to  His  crown,  all  our  experience  is  repre- 
sented  and  illustrated.  He  is  the  power 
and  wisdom  of  God,  for  He  offsets  our 
impotence  and  ignorance.  Man's  sin  springs 
partly  from  the  incapacity  of  the  natural 
man,  and  partly  from  the  hostility  of  the 
carnal  mind.'  Its  cure  cannot  be  found, 
therefore,  either  in  the  power  or  wisdom  of 
man,  and  all  attempts  at  self-help  and  self- 
rescue  have  been,  and  ever  must  be,  dismal 
and  disastrous  failures.  The  providential 
mission  of  the  two  great  nations  of  antiquity 

'  Cf.  I  Cor.  ii.  14,  and  Rom.  viii.  7. 


i04      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

was  to  show  man's  weakness  and  folly. 
Roman  civilization  stood  for  law  and  arms; 
its  watchword  was  Poivcr.  Greek  civiliza- 
tion stood  for  letters  and  art  ;  its  watch- 
word, Wisdom.  Both  those  nations  rotted 
in  their  own  vices,  and  drew  the  vultures  to 
the  prey  by  the  scent  of  their  decay.  Well 
might  Paul  not  be  ashamed  to  present  to 
the  Roman,  Christ  the  power  of  God,  and,  to 
the  Greek,  Christ  the  wisdom  of  God. 

He  who  would  preach  must  be  true  to  his 
own  convictions  ;  the  pulpit  is  holy  ground, 
and  He  who  dwelt  in  the  Bush  demands 
truth  in  the  inward  parts.  Candor  and  a 
good  conscience  demand  that  we  in  the 
pulpit  utter  our  deep  experiences  and  deliber- 
ate convictions.  And  no  marked  advance  hi 
pulpit-poivcr  will  be  attained  without  more 
emphatic  and  exchisive  preaching  of  Christ 
crucified,  enforced  by  experience.    . 

The  themes  treated  in  the  modern  pulpit, 
as  well  as  the  sensational  announcements  by 
which  they  are  heralded,  often  make  us 
blush  with  shame.'     Thej'  are  travesties  up- 

'  Take  the  pulpit  notices  for  one  week  :  "  Confuience," 
"  Dynamite  under  the  Throne,"  "  Bible  Laws  .it  Business," 
"  Ideals  of  Manhood,"  "  Why  She  came  to  the  Kingdom," 
"  Scientific  Skepticism,"  "Taking  Account  of  Character," 
"  Would  the  Virgin  Mary,  St.  retcr,  or  St.    Patrick  attend 


THE  PREACHER  IN  HIS  PULPIT.       105 

on  preaching.  The  connection  of  many  a 
so-called  "  sermon  "  with  the  Word  is  ficti- 
tious or  factitious ;  the  robe  of  a  tawdry 
rhetoric  is  substituted  for  a  divine  simplicity 
of  speech  ;  for  laclc  of  specific  gravity,  spe- 
cific levity  abounds,  and  the  pulpit  becomes 
a  place  for  secular  entertainment,  if  not  for 
clownish  buffoonery. 

A  lecture  may  be  popular  and  even  prof- 
itable and  yet  unfit  for  the  pulpit.  Preach- 
ing is  the  unfolding  of  a  "  Thus  saith  the 
Lord."  The  true  preacher  thinks  God's 
thoughts  after  God,  searches  the  Word, 
compares  spiritual  things  with  spiritual,  and 
so  gets  at  the  mind  of  God.  This  germ, 
buried  in  his  heart,  is  by  holy,  prayerful 
meditation  made  to  grow  and  germinate. 
The  Word,  first  born  of  God,  is  born  again 
of  man  ;  it  becomes  incarnate  in  his  convic- 
tion and  affection,  and  so  in  his  speech. 

a  Catholic  Church?"  "  Forcibleness  of  Right  Words," 
"  Sins  Covered  at  Pompeii,"  "  Ethics  of  Marriage,"  ''  Con- 
ditions of  Power,"  "  Success  in  Life,"  "  Up  a  Tree," 
"Short  Beds  and  Narrow  Coverings,"  "  How  to  Choose  a 
Wife,"  "A  Youthful  Heroine,"  "  Whittier,  the  Quaker 
Poet,"  "  Errors  of  Police  Courts,"  "A  War  with  Chili," 
"A  Rain  of  Righteousness,"  "That  Night  Interview," 
"  A  Delightful  Journey,"  "  The  Function  of  Particularism," 
"A  Scarlet  Thread,"  "Pretty  Women,"  "Character  of 
Hamlet,"  "Boomerangs  and  Monkeys,"  etc. 


io6      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PRE.ICIIIXG. 

The  true  sermon  has  therefore  a  divine 
genesis ;  it  begins  in  God.  The  Spirit 
broods  over  the  mind,  till  the  chaos  of  dim 
perceptions  and  confused  conceptions  is 
resolved  into  order.  God  says,  "  Let  light 
be,"  and  light  is.'  Then  comes  separation 
between  heavenly  and  earthly  things,  and, 
like  stars  in  a  cloudless  sky,  celestial  glories 
appear,  and  there  is  revealed  a  firmament 
of  radiant  splendor. 

It  is  not  strange  if  the  preaching  that 
has  such  a  Genesis  ends  in  an  Apocalypse  of 
Jesus  Christ,  a  revelation  of  the  crucified 
and  glorified  One,  which  fits  a  man  to  speak 
with  strange  authority  and  power.  The 
Word  of  God,  alive  with  the  thought  of 
God,  has  taken  root  downward  and  bears 
fruit  upward.  It  is  no  mere  intellectual 
growth,  branching  into  analytic  argument 
and  blooming  into  flowers  of  rhetoric.  The 
hearer  instinctively  feels  that  such  preaching 
is  a  more  than  human  product — a  burning 
bush,  aglow  with  the  mystic  flame  before 
which  reverence  removes  the  sandals  of 
criticism. 

So  it  haseverbeen.  The  preaching  which 
God  uses  to  convert  men  lifts  Christ  cruci- 
'  Gen.  i.  3,  Hebrew. 


THE  PREACHER  IN  HIS  PULPIT.        107 

fied,  and  finds  the  secret  of  its  power  in 
turning  the  eyes  of  men  to  Him  alone.  The 
Master  Himself  has  left  us  our  first  and 
last  lesson  in  homiletics  :  "  And  I,  if  I  be 
lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw  all  men 
unto  Me." '  The  preacher  is  a  mediator  be- 
tween God  and  man,  His  mouthpiece.  His 
ambassador.  He  must  hear  the  Word  at 
His  mouth,  and  then  speak  that  Word 
as  nearly  as  possible  just  as  he  hears  it  from 
God. 

This  is  the  first  and  last  law  of  the  sermon. 
Preparation  must,  above  all,  be  scriptural  and 
spiritual.  To  learn  to  do  such  work  easily 
is  the  peril  of  the  preacher.  Facility  and 
felicity  in  the  merely  literary  processes,  and 
fluency  and  beauty  in  utterance,  are  often 
mistaken  for  pulpit  power.  The  homiletical 
faculty  is  substituted  for  a  mind,  heart, 
tongue,  infused,  suffused,  transfused  with 
that  Spirit  who  is  the  breath,  the  light,  the 
life  of  the  Word.  The  intellectual  and 
human  crowds  out  the  spiritual  and  divine. 

Such  preaching  will,  of  course,  be  power- 
less to  save  and  sanctify,  for  a  stream  rises 
to  no  higher  level  than  its  source.  Preach- 
ing, when  it  is  instinct  with  God's  power,  is 
'  John  xii.  32. 


lo8      THE  DIVINE  ART  Of^  PREACHING. 

the  spreading  of  God's  truth  over  the  whole 
man,  till  it  touches  intellect,  sensibilities,  af- 
fections, conscience,  will ;  but  we  can  apply 
truth  to  others  only  so  far  as  it  has  first  been 
applied  to  ourselves.  God's  word,  in  order  to 
be  effective,  must  have  the  man  behind  it  as 
well  as  before  it,  and  come  forth  backed  by 
a  rich  personal  experience,  a  co-ordinate  tes- 
timony from  the  inward  life  of  the  preacher. 

How  obvious  it  is,  therefore,  that  the 
preacher  must  be  a  genuine  man,  and  his 
whole  life  be  a  doing  of  the  truth.  Nowhere 
do  subtlety  and  fraud  appear  to  more  disad- 
vantage than  in  the  pulpit. 

On  the  Duke  of  Richmond's  report  about 
fortifications,  Sheridan  said  he  complimented 
"  the  noble  president  on  his  talents  as  an 
engineer,  which  were  strongly  evinced  in  the 
planning  and  constructing  of  that  very 
paper.  .  .  He  has  made  it  a  contest  of 
posts,  and  conducted  his  reasoning  not  less 
on  principles  of  trigonometry  than  of  logic. 
There  are  certain  assumptions  thrown  up  like 
advanced  works  to  keep  the  enemy  at  a  dis- 
tance from  the  principal  object  of  debate; 
strong  provisos  protect  and  cover  the  flanks 
of  his  assertions;  his  very  queries  are  his 
casemates."     I  remember  to  have  heard  in 


THE  PREACHER  IM  HIS  PULPIT.        109 

a  great  ecclesiastical  gathering,  from  a  con- 
spicuous ecclesiastic,  the  most  disingenuous 
and  thoroughly  dishonest  speech  I  ever 
heard.  How  can  such  a  man  help  struggling 
souls?  Oh  for  the  sermon  behind  which  is 
the  whole,  honest  minded,  honest  hearted 
man,  who  speaks  what  he  knows  and  has 
been  taught  of  God. 

It  has  "  pleased  God  by  the  foolishness  of 
preaching  to  save  them  that  believe."  The 
pulpit  is  the  main  agent  in  evangelization, 
and  to  raise  or  lower  its  standard  is  to  help 
or  to  hinder  every  other  form  of  active  effort 
to  save  souls.  When  the  "  preachers  of  the 
gospel"  are  content  to  preach  the  gospel;' 
when  Christ  crucified  is  their  theme,  and  it  is 
treated  "  in  a  crucified  style  ;"  when  thegerm 
of  every  sermon  is  some  seed-thought  of 
God  that  has  found  root  in  the  heart  and 
borne  fruit  in  the  speech  ;  when  the  aim  of 
every  sermon  is  to  glorify  Christ  in  saving 
and  sanctifying  souls,  and  toward  that  end 
every  thought  and  word  and  gesture  con- 
verge—we shall  see  results  of  which  even 
Pentecost  was  but  a  prophecy  and  fore- 
taste. 

In  the  assault  on  Fort  Pulaski,  every  ball 
in   the  first  volley  of  seventy  guns  struck 


no      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

within  a  circle  twelve  feet  in  diameter. 
Down  came  the  flag  I  Of  what  use  to  resist 
such  a  fire  !  Many  a  flag  of  Satan  would  be 
hauled  down  if  our  guns  were  pointed  in 
one  direction,  and  shot  upon  shot  were 
hurled,  heavy  and  hot,  against  the  walls  of 
his  citadel.  The  gospel  is  still  the  power 
and  the  wisdom  of  God  unto  salvation. 
There  is  no  promise  that  man's  word  shall 
not  fail ;  but  "  My  word, "says  God,  "  shall 
not  return  unto  me  void."  ' 

Again  we  affirm  it — would  that  it  were 
with  a  clarion  peal  as  loud  as  the  trump  of 
Gabriel ! — we  must  have  a  thoroughly  evan- 
gelical, if  we  are  to  Kave  a  thoroughl)-  evan- 
gelisticy  pulpit.  Men  must  be  drawn  not  to 
us,  but  to  the  cross,  and  to  us  only  that  they 
may  through  us  be  drawn  to  Christ.  Those 
attractions  only  are  legitimate  in  the  preacher 
that  make  the  cross  effective.  Let  us  have 
the  gospel  unmixed  with  human  philosophy, 
poetry,  rhetoric,  and  apologetics.  It  is  the 
mixture  of  incongruous  material  that  makes 
brittleness.  That  preaching  that  corrupts 
and  adulterates  God's  gospel  with  man's 
wisdom  lacks  consistency  and  coherence, 
and  is  doomed  to  practical  failure. 
'  Is.  Iv.  II. 


THE  PRE  A  CHER  IN  HIS  P  UIPIT.        1 1 1 

I  preached  philosophy  and  men  applauded  : 
I  preached  Christ  and  men  repented. 

The  facts,  rather  than   the  philosophy,  of 
redemption,  we  are    to  preach.     We  are  to 
speak  the  truth  on  the  authority  of  a  "Thus 
saith    the    Lord."      Lowering    God's    Word 
into    a    comparison   and    competition    with 
systems   of   human   teaching  sacrifices  this 
unique  authority.     The  primary  test  of  hu- 
man systems  is  found  in  their  appeal  to  one's 
reason  and  conscience;  the  primary  appeal 
of  the  gospel  is  found  in  the  fact  that  God 
speaks.     The  philosophy  of  His  scheme  of 
salvation  is  too  deep  for  me  ;  even  the  angels 
desire  to  look  into  the  deep  things  of  God. 
I  may,  like  Nicodemus,  ask  Jioivonwhy  these 
things  are  so,  but    to  my  question   God  an- 
swers  only  by  solemn  and  emphatic  repeti- 
tion, "Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  thee."     So 
must  we  dare  to  preach  with  authority,  as 
ambassadors  of  God.     There  has  never  been 
an   era  of   pulpit  power   except   with    such 
conditions,  and  there  never  will  be. 


CHAPTER    XI. 


THE   PREACHER  AMONG   SNARES. 


NE  of  the  mysteries  of  chemistry  is 
neutralization,  the  process  whereby 
the  peculiar  properties  of  one  sub- 
stance are,  by  another,  destroyed  or  rendered 
inert  or  imperceptible.  Thus,  acids  and 
alkalies  more  or  less  completely  neutralize 
each  other.  Combinations  may,  from  harm- 
less elements,  produce  poisons,  or  may 
render  poisons  harmless.  Hydrogen,  that 
most  combustible  gas,  and  ox\'gen,  that 
great  feeder  of  combustion,  unite  to  form 
water,  the  foe  of  combustion  ;  while  nitrogen, 
the  "  lazy  giant,"  and  oxygen,  the  very  spirit 
of  energy,  hold  each  other  in  check  in  the 
atmosphere. 

So  it  is  possible  to  render  neutral  and  in- 
effective even  the  vital  truths  of  redemption. 
Paul  would  not  preach  the  gospel  "with 
wisdom  of  words,  lest  the  cross  of  Christ 
should     be     viciiic    of    none    effeet!'      Even 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  SNARES.      I13 

the  gospel  may  be  neutralized  by  foreign 
mixtures;  matter  is  not  independent  of  man- 
ner.  Christ  crucified  may  be  preached  in  a 
way  that  prevents  spiritual  power. 

Two  great  questions  arise  as  to  preaching: 
How  shall  it  be  made  attractive,  and  How 
shall  it  be  made  effective.  We  must  draw 
and  hold,  before  we  can  win  and  mold  men. 
Paul  touches  a  vital  point,  when  he  hints 
that  in  seeking  attractiveness  we  may  sacri- 
fice effectiveness,  mixing  with  God's  medi- 
cine, to  make  it  more  palatable,  what 
destroys  its  corrective  and  curative 
properties. 

The  apostle  was  naturally  vain  and  ambi- 
tious, and  had  a  double  culture  in  Hebrew 
and  Greek  schools,  and  yet  he  successfully 
resisted  a  subtle  temptation  which  has 
proved  to  many  a  preacher  the  fatal  fruit'of 
a  forbidden  tree.  Men  of  great  powers  have 
often  veiled  the  homely  gospel  message  be- 
hind the  golden  and  silver  tissyes  of  ornate 
speech,  corrupting  the  wisdom  of  God  with 
the  wisdom  of  man  ;  or  dazzled  men  by  a 
show  of  genius,  and  robed  spiritual  truth  in 
the  scholastic  gown  of  secular  learning,  as 
though  it  were  but  ahigher  school  of  human 
philosophy. 


114      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

The  preaching  that  lacks  simplicity  makes 
the  cross  of  none  effect,  by  lifting  it  above 
the  level  of  the  average  man.  To  robe  the 
gospel  in  unsanctified  rhetoric,  diverts  atten- 
tion from  the  Christ  to  the  "  Chrysostom," 
the  golden-mouthed  orator.  Such  preach- 
ers, like  the  Pharisees,  ''have  their  reward;  ". 
they  call  forth  a  cold  intellectual  assent, 
awaken  an  aesthetic  pleasure,  kindle  a  senti- 
mental glow,  perhaps  even  an  enthusiastic 
ardor  and  fervor  ;  but  they  fail  to  pierce  the 
heart  with  the  sword  of  the  Spirit,  which  is 
the  Word  of  God.  That  sword  proves  living 
and  powerful,  not  when  worn  in  the  sheath 
of  scholarly  culture,  or  when  swung  in  air  to 
show  the  flashing  gems  with  which  learning 
decks  it,  but  when  drawn  from  its  scabbard 
and  thrust  naked  into  the  hearer's  heart. 
Nettleton  slowly  repeated  the  text,  "  I 
thought  on  my  wa}'s,  and  turned  my  feet 
unto  Thy  testimonies,"  and  before  he  "  be- 
gan  to  speak,"  the  sword  of  the  Spirit  had 
already  pierced  his  audience. 

When  the  sermon  is  the  unfolding  of  a 
Scripture ^rr/;/,  it  will  naturally  take  largely 
even  a  Scripture  fonn.  To  the  sprouting 
seed  of  His  own  truth  God  giveth  its  own 
body — "  which  things  also  we  speak,  not   in 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  SNARES.      115 

words  which  man's  wisdom  teacheth,  but 
which  the  Holy  Ghost  teacheth."  '  Paul 
conceived  of  the  gospel  as  having  its  own 
dialect.  Effective  preaching  gets  not  only- 
its  form  of  thought,  but  its  form  of  speech, 
from  above.  Unction  implies  a  vital  insight 
into  truth,  in  advance  of  an  utterance  which 
is  of  the  Spirit  ;  first,  the  anointed  eyes  and 
then  the  anointed  tongue. 

Paul  not  only  confined  himself  to  themes 
which  have  their  root  in  Christ  crucified,  but 
even  those  themes  he  would  not  present 
with  wisdom  of  words,  lest  by  the  human 
rhetorician  or  scholastic  philosopher  displac- 
ing the  divine  ambassador,  the  cross  be 
made  of  none  effect.  When  we  give  divine 
truth  its  own  celestial  body,  the  glory  is  not 
terrestrial,  but  celestial  ;  men  hear  heaven's 
message  in  heaven's  dialect  and  give  honor 
to  God  alone. 

Much  of  the  ineffectiveness  of  modern 
preaching  finds  an  explanation  in  our  at- 
tempt to  make  it  attractive  and  effective  by 
savoring  it  with  Attic  salt — wisdom  of  words. 
The  pulpit  of  to-day  is  thought  to  be  largely 
loyal  to  the  truth,  and  that  probably  at  no 
time  since  the  Reformation  Christ  has  been 
'  I  Cor.  ii.  13. 


Ii6      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

more  generally  preached.  But  how  often 
the  fashion  of  the  message  fails  to  fit  its 
form  and  feature;  the  truth  itself  being 
robed  in  a  "garment  spotted  by  the  flesh." 
We  grieve  the  Spirit  when  we  lack  faith  in 
the  power  of  God's  Word  and  of  God's 
Spirit  to  convert  and  transform.  We  forsake 
exposition  and  exegesis  for  philosophy  and 
apologetics.  Drawn  down  by  the  challenge 
of  cultured  critics  and  scientific  skeptics,  we 
vainly  seek  to  cope  with  these  "Syrians"  upon 
the  plain,  and  to  fight  them  with  human 
weapons  on  their  own  level.  But  the  whole 
history  of  preaching  shows  that  opposers  are 
not  so  won.  Theremin  is  right ;  "  Eloquence 
is  a  virtue;"  and  the  virtue  that  prevails 
against  the  foes  of  the  truth  is  not  found  in 
the  wisdom  of  the  scholar  or  the  magnetism 
of  the  orator,  but  in  the  simple  witness  of 
one  who  speaks  what  he  knows  and  testifies 
what  he  has  seen  ;  whose  power  to  con- 
vince and  persuade  is  the  fact  that  he  is 
himself  convinced  and  persuaded. 

It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  the  master  dia- 
lecticians and  rhetoricians  have  never  been 
the  greatest  soul-winners.  A  preacher  died 
a  half-century  ago,  whose  pulpit  orations 
outshone  any  others  of  his  day  ;  yet,  though 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  SNARES.      n? 

masterpieces  of  argument  and  analysis,  they 
were  not  fruitful  in  conversions  ;  while  the 
seraphic  Whitefield,  wielding  the  simple 
truth  of  God  with  the  power  of  the  Spirit, 
warmed  even  the  cold,  calculating  Franklin, 
and  the  philosophical,  skeptical  Hume.  An 
evangelist  of  our  own  day — a  man  of  one 
Book,  of  whom  men  say,  "  How  knoweth 
this  man  letters,  having  never  learned?" 
who  takes  no  pride  in  either  his  grammar  or 
his  rhetoric,  and  whose  refined  pastor  once 
counseled  him  to  keep  silence — has  been 
moving  two  continents  by  simply  holding 
up  the  cross  ! 

The  very  training  of  ministers  largely 
tends  toward  a  false  standard  of  pulpit 
power.  Students  are  told  to  cultivate  a  high 
literary  style,  to  aim  at  eloquence.  Such 
counsel  has  a  worldly  savor  and  flavor.  The 
pulpit  is  no  place  for  literary  display.  God 
would  have  the  "  unhewn  altar,"  that  men 
may  look  only  at  the  slain  lamb  upon  it. 
Men  may  praise  Ahaz,  when  he  brings  into 
God's  courts  the  elaborate,  carved,  Damas- 
cene altar,  but  the  Shechinah  will  grow  dim. 
Preaching  is  a  divine  vocation,  and  its  power 
is  of  God.  The  preacher's  style,  like  that  of 
Atticus, "  when  unadorned  is  most  adorned"; 


ti8      7y/£"  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

like  a  maiden,  sweeter  without  paint  and 
perfumery.  Buffon  said,  "  Le  style  !  C'est 
I'homme  !  "  We  would  go  further  :  style,  in 
the  true  preacher,  is  God  speaking  through 
him  ;  it  is  what  he  is,  as  a  man  of  God,  an 
anointed  messenger  of  God,  who  is  guided  to 
utter  His  message. 

Pascal  doubted  whether  preaching  pre- 
sents a  proper  field  "  for  eloquence  "  save  in 
the  sense  of  speech  that  is  thrilled  by  the 
power  of  a  supernatural  conviction  and  per- 
suasion. This  cultivation  of  st}le,  this  as- 
piration after  eloquence,  tend  to  self-con- 
sciousness. Instead  of  being  absorbed  in 
the  truth  and  in  passion  for  souls,  the 
preacher  becomes  hypercritical.  A  slip  of 
pen  or  tongue,  an  ungrammatical  or  un- 
rhetorical  blunder  or  blemish,  annoys  and 
disconcerts  him  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
a  musical  sentence,  decorously  wrought  and 
sonorously  uttered,  a  figure  ingeniously  elab- 
orated, an  original  thought  flashing  its  bril- 
liance— all  this  pleases  his  carnal  nature,  and^ 
awakens  self-complacency.  Such  vexation 
and  such  satisfaction  alike  divert  the  mind 
of  the  ambassador  of  God  from  his  divine 
vocation  and  grieve  the  Holy  Spirit  ;  such 
pride  and   such  humiliation  are   equally  un- 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  SNARES.      119 

seemly,  and,  like  a  godless  repentance,  need 
to  be  repented  of. 

Moreover,  there  is  a  certain  nameless 
charm,  a  mysterious  power,  that  invests  the 
anointed  preacher,  which  is  known  as  unc- 
tion. Its  nature  is  a  mystery  ;  but  one  thing 
is  sure,  unction  and  self-conscionsncss  never 
go  together.  He  whom  God  fills  forgets 
himself,  and  whatever  recalls  him  from  this 
self-unconsciousness  hinders  the  free  flow  of 
God's  power  through  him;  and,  seeing  that 
this  is  so,  the  godly  preacher  habitually 
cultivates  this  holy  engrossment,  for  the 
sake  of  the  divine  endowment  and  endue- 
ment. 

In  fact,  the  sense  of  the  awful  responsi- 
bility of  preaching  is  itself  enough,  when 
truly  awakened,  to  lead  to  self-oblivion. 

"  It  is  curious,"  said  Prof.  George  Wilson, 
"this  feeling  of  having  an  audience,  like 
clay  in  your  hands,  to  mold  for  a  season  as 
you  please.  It  is  a  terribly  responsible 
power."  Responsible  indeed !  "  Proba- 
tion "  is  that  period  of  the  soul's  life  when 
as  yet  the  final  decision  has  not  been  made, 
either  for  or  against  God  :  to  choose  one  way 
is  salvation ;  to  choose  the  other  way  is 
damnation.     Hence,  zvJiile  the  man  of  God 


120      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

is  preaching,  a  hearer  s  probation  may  practi- 
cally end  and  his  salvatioji  or  damnation  be- 
gin. "  Who  is  sufificient  for  these  things  ?  " 
While  the  preacher  turns  aside  to  in- 
dulge a  flight  of  poetic  fancy,  elaboiate  a 
figure,  indulge  a  pleasantry,  or  create  a  di- 
version, he  is  giving  way  to  Satan,  who 
stands  at  every  priest's  right  hand  to  resist 
him  ;  and  in  that  fatal  moment  he  loses  his 
grip  upon  a  soul  almost  persuaded  ;  his 
hand  lets  up  its  pressure  just  as  the  scale  is 
turning  for  God  ! 

When  a  preacher  gets  such  a  conception 
of  preaching  it  lifts  him  above  criticism  ;  it 
inspires  that  fear  of  God  which  makes  him 
fearless  of  man,  intrepidly  indifferent  to 
either  compliment  or  censure.  It  becomes 
irreverent  impertinence  in  the  hearer  to  pull 
out  his  watch  when  the  half-hour  is  up,  as 
though  a  discourse  born  of  God,  and  having 
a  definite  end,  could  be  arbitrarily  cut  off  at 
the  expiration  of  thirty  minutes  while  as  yet 
the  argument  and  appeal  are  incomplete. 
The  true  preacher  does  not  bow  to  the 
caprice  of  his  hearer,  nor  yield  to  the  sense- 
less clamor  for  short  sermons.  A  crystal  of 
truth,  like  any  other  crystal,  must  be  cleft 
according  to  its  scams;  a  sermon  that  has 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  SNARES.      121 

an  end  to  reach,  and  stops  short  of  it,  is  a 
failure  as  truly  as  a  sermon  that  reaches  its 
true  end  and  highest  impression,  and  then 
grows  weaker  by  going  beyond  its  proper 
close. 

Let  all  those  who  preach  this  gospel 
go  into  the  darkness  where  God  dwells 
and  get  his  whispered  message  ;  then,  what 
they  have  heard  in  the  darkness,  in  the 
ear,  in  the  closet,  let  them  proclaim  in  the 
light,  in  the  ears  of  many,  from  the  house- 
tops. Let  us  cultivate  a  divine  self-oblivion. 
He  who  aims  at  wisdom  of  words  may  hear 
the  shouts  of  the  multitude  praising  the 
beauty  of  his  bow  and  arrows  and  the  grace 
with  which  he  handles  them  ;  but  it  is  only 
when  we  lose  ourselves  in  God  that  we  hear 
the  groans  of  the  wounded,  which  are  the 
supreme  test  of  the  archer's  skill,  and  which 
remind  us  of  the  fabled  shrieks  of  the  man- 
drake when  it  is  pulled  up  by  the  roots.  He 
who  is  to  plead  with  men  to  be  reconciled  to 
God  should  come  out  of  God's  Pavilion  with 
that  chrism  of  a  celestial  presence  which 
makes  even  the  face  to  shine. 

There  is  a  way  of  preaching  that  carries 
power;  but  it  is  not  an  invention  of  human 
oratory.     Rhetoric   and   logic,    poetry   and 


122      THE  DIVIiYE  ART  OF  PREACHh\G. 

philosophy,  genius  and  culture,  cannot  in 
their  best  combination  assure  that  kind  of 
power.  It  must  be  gotten  waiting  upon 
God  in  the  silence,  secrecy,  solitude,  of  the 
Holy  of  Holies  where  God  dwells. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THE   PREACHER  AMONG   HIS   PEOPLE. 

AM  now  to  touch  briefly  upon  Pas- 
toral Conduct,  as  affecting  the  pozver 
of  the  Piilpit. 
There  is  a  certain  individuality  in  the 
best  sermon,  and  this  individuality  proceeds 
first,  from  the  experience  of  the  preacher 
himself,  and  secondly,  from  his  power  to 
apply  the  truth  to  the  hearer  so  as  to  make 
the  hearer  say  within  himself,  "  That  man 
knows  all  about  me."  A  sermon  needs  to 
reach  real  wants,  and  the  question  is,  how 
real  wants  are  to  be  known.  The  only  solu- 
tion to  this  question  is  that  there  ought  to 
be  personal  acquaintance,  not  social  contact 
only,  but  spiritual  contact.  We  must  make 
pastoral  calls,  and  pastoral  calls  which  shall 
have  the  effect  of  disclosing  to  us  the  inmost 
spiritual  history  of  the  people  to  which  we 
minister,  and  disclosing  to  us  their  actual 
personal    daily    needs.     We  shall  find  that 


124      THE  DIVIXE  ART  OE  P REACH L\G. 

the  methods  by  which  we  are  enabled  to 
reach  the  needs  of  one  man  or  woman  are  the 
methods  by  which  we  reach  the  needs  of  all 
others,  of  which  that  individual  is  a  repre- 
sentative. Hence  the  best  sermons  will  be 
suggested  by  personal  contact  with  those  to 
whom  we  preach.  When  we  find  that  we  can 
help  persons  in  actual  difficulties  ;  when  those 
difficulties  have  driven  us  into  a  corner,  and 
we  find  that  God's  help  comes  to  our  aid, 
we  may  further  utilize  the  train  of  thought, 
argument,  or  illustration,  or  appeal,  by  which 
we  have  brought  assistance  to  that  dis- 
tressed or  inquiring  hearer,  and  it  will  be 
found  that  these  are  the  most  effective  ser- 
mons for  the  multitude. 

I  was  accustomed  during  the  later  years  of 
my  pastorate  to  carry  about  with  me  a  book 
for  permanent  record,  in  which  in  cipher  I 
put  down  all  the  facts  which  affected  the 
personal  and  family  life  of  my  congregation, 
which  I  was  able  in  any  way  to  ascertain. 
For  instance,  I  would  inquire  where  the 
members  of  each  family  were  born  ;  whether 
there  were  any  special  besetting  sins  in  the 
children,  known  to  the  parents;  whether  any 
children  had  been  specially  consecrated  to 
God  from  birth,  etc.     I  would  inquire  and 


-  THE  PREACHER  AMONG  HIS  PEOPLE.    125 

make  record  about  those  who  had  died  in  the 
family  circle  ;  the  ages  and  circumstances; 
and  about  members  of  the  family  living  in 
other  parts ;  about  aged  grandparents  and 
their  infirmities  ;  about  members  of  the 
household  who  belonged  to  other  Churches 
and  communions  ;  about  those  who  had  any 
physical  infirmities  or  deformities — in  a 
word  ascertain,  as  far'as  I  could,  facts  of  the 
family  history.  This  enabled  me  to  pray 
intelligently  for  my  people ;  and  before  I 
repeated  a  call  I  would  look  over  my  mem- 
oranda, so  as  to  be  enabled  to  converse  intel- 
ligently and  sympathetically  ;  and  I  found 
that  this  method  of  getting  at  the  inmost 
history  of  my  people  was  an  invaluable 
source  of  power  to  me  in  reaching  their 
souls. 

Moreover,  let  us  remember  that  it  is  of 
the  very  genius  of  love  that  the  tie  formed 
by  personal  contact  should  invest  sermons 
with  strange  power.  Even  what  is  common- 
place in  itself  becomes  uncommonplace  and 
extraordinary  when  the  love  of  a  dear  peo- 
ple creates  round  about  the  preacher  a  halo, 
which  is  sacred.  His  words  coming  through 
that  halo  acquire  a  divine  luster  and  power. 
There  is  many  a  man  who  is  a  very  ordinary 


126      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

preacher,  but  who,  by  devotion  to  his  people, 
as  a  pastor,  comes  to  be  dearer  to  them  than 
all  other  preachers,  and  actually  more  in- 
teresting to  them  than  any  stranger,  how- 
ever gifted.  Here  is  God's  compensation 
for  a  lack  of  intellectual  genius,  that  He  be- 
stows on  many  a  man,  somewhat  defective  in 
mental  power — this  genius  of  the  heart.  He 
easily  works  himself  into  the  deepest  affec- 
tions of  his  congregation,  he  becomes  to 
them  their  indispensable  guide  and  helper, 
the  simplest  of  his  utterances  becomes  to 
them  the  wisdom  of  a  sage.  They  look  to 
him  for  comfort,  counsel,  strength,  guidance  ; 
their  experience  of  contact  with  him  makes 
him  more  and  more  helpful  to  their  spiritual 
life.  He  becomes  an  integral  part  of  their 
very  existence.  I  have  known  some  of  the 
most  efficient  and  useful  ministers  to  be 
men  of  little  intellectual  ability,  and  even 
less  intellectual  culture,  but  they  occupied 
a  place  in  the  hearts  of  their  people  that  no 
stranger  could  possibly  possess.  I  fear 
sometimes  that,  because  Mr.  Spurgeon,  who 
was  an  extraordinary  man,  was  a  preacher 
first  of  all,  and  to  a  very  limited  extent 
came  into  pastoral  contact  with  his  people, 
some   of  his  students    may  be  misled   into 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  HIS  PEOPLE.    12 -J 

the  inference  that  it  will  be  safe  for  them 
to  undertake  simply  to  be  preachers  and  to 
neglect  pastoral  activities ;  but,  if  so,  I 
prophesy,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  virtual 
failure. 

I  wish  to  call  attention  to  the  relation  of 
the  pastor  to  the  beneficence  of  the  Church. 
It  may  be  taken,  as  an  axiom,  that  this  is  a 
vital  relation.  The  benevolence  and  benefi- 
cence of  a  congregation  are  never  likely  to 
attain  to  a  normal  development  apart  from 
the  personal  influence  of  the  pastor  or 
minister.  This  is  so  obvious  that  it  needs 
no  proof.  The  statement  of  the  position 
carries  with  it  its  own  demonstration,  and 
all  that  we  essay  to  do  at  this  time  is  to 
illustrate  and  apply  this  principle.  For 
brevity's  sake  we  divide  this  theme  under 
four  heads  ;  the  pastor,  as  a  teacher,  a  leader, 
a  pleader,  and  an  exemplar. 

First,  as  a  teacJier.  The  pulpit  is  a 
great  educator  or  trainer.  Sometimes,  under 
its  influence,  a  congregation  enjoys  a  sort  of 
university  education.  The  teaching  of  the 
pulpit  comes  with  authority  !  and  specially, 
if  it  be  a  faithful  reflection  of  the  senti- 
ments of  the  Word  of  God,  it  comes  with 
the  authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  of 


1 2  8      THE  DI I  'IXE  ART  OF  PRE  A  CHIXG. 

the  ins[)iring  Spirit.  The  duty  and  the 
privilege  of  s)''stematic  beneficence  should 
be  among  the  foremost  of  the  topics  treated 
in  the  pulpit.  The  minister  of  Christ  should 
not  be  afraid  of  repetition.  The  word  "  in- 
culcation "  embodies  no  little  of  the  ethics 
of  etymology  ;  In-culx — to  tread  in  with  the 
heel.  It  implies  the  constant  going  over 
and  over  of  the  same  path,  and  fixing  the 
impression  of  truth  by  the  frequency  and 
the  emphasis  of  repetition,  which  Sydney 
Smith  remarked  was,  for  all  purposes  of 
oratorical  persuasion,  the  only  figure  of 
speech  that  is  worth  a  farthing.  The  teach- 
ings of  the  Scripture  on  the  subject  of 
beneficence,  however  they  may  be  resisted 
by  carnality  and  selfishness,  nevertheless 
carry  conviction,  for  they  appeal  to  the 
normal  instincts  of  the  human  soul.  Men 
may  indulge  themselves  in  all  manner  of 
selfish,  extravagant,  careless,  and  godless 
expenditure,  but  there  is  something  which 
tells  every  man  from  within  that  this  is  not 
only  wronging  God  and  wronging  man,  but 
wronging  himself. 

The  foundation  of  all  beneficence  is  the 
doctrine  of  divine  stewardship,  which,  briefly 
stated,  means  that  we  possess  nothing  which 


The  preacher  among  his  people.  129 

is  absolutely  our  own,  that  every  good  gift  is 
God's  gift,  and  is  to  be  used  in  recognition 
of  the  Giver;  that  property  is  something 
held  in  trust,  and  that,  as  trustees,  we  are 
bound  to  expend  what  we  have  for  the 
profit  of  others  and  the  supreme  honor  and 
glory  of  the  original  and  inalienable  Owner. 
Upon  this  foundation  of  divine  stewardship 
the  minister  of  Christ  must  press  the  privilege 
as  well  as  duty  of  systematic  beneficence. 
This  is  the  antidote  and  corrective  of  that 
selfishness  which  is  perhaps  the  root  of  all 
other  sins,  and  the  most  dangerous  foe  even  of 
human  happiness,  itself.  Balzac  in  his  Pcau 
de  Chagrin  makes  use  of  an  old  fable  which 
has  never  lost  its  pertinency.  He  represents 
a  young  man  as  becoming  the  possessor  of  a 
magic  skin,  the  peculiarity  of  which  is  that 
while  it  bestows  on  its  possessor  the  power 
to  gratify  every  wish  or  whim,  with  every 
such  gratification  the  skin  itself  shrinks  in 
all  its  dimensions.  The  owner  makes  every 
effort  to  find  the  cause  of  such  shrinkage, 
invoking  the  aid  of  physician,  physicist, 
chemist,  and  student  of  natural  history;  but 
it  is  all  in  vain.  He  draws  round  the  skin  a 
red  line.  That  same  day  he  indulges  in  a 
longing   for   some     object    of   gratification. 


t30      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

The  next  morning  there  is  between  the  red 
line  and  the  skin  a  little  interval,  close  to 
which  it  was  traced,  and  so  always,  inevitably, 
as  he  lives  on,  gratifying  one  desire  or  satis- 
fying one  passion  after  another,  this  fatal 
process  of  shrinkage  continues.  Then  a 
mortal  disease  sets  in  which  keeps  pace  with 
the  shrinking  skin,  and  so  his  life  and  his 
talisman  together  come  to  an  end.  This  is 
but  a  fable  to  illustrate  the  moral  atrophy 
of  self-indulgence. 

Paul  in  his  Epistle  to  Timothy,  the  sixth 
chapter  and  ninth  verse,  warns  the  rich,  or 
them  that  will  to  be  rich,  that  they  fall  into 
temptation  and  a  snare  and  many  foolish  and 
hurtful  lusts  which  drown  men  in  destruc- 
tion and  perdition  ;  and  he  further  warns 
them  that  the  love  of  riioney,  that  is  to  say 
greed,  is  the  root  of  all  evil,  and  that,  while 
some  covet  after  gain,  they  pierce  themselves 
through  with  many  sorrows.  The  Apostle 
James  has,  if  possible,  a  still  more  pertinent 
word  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  his  Epistle, 
second  and  third  verses.  He  says  that  the 
rust  which  hoarded  gold  and  silver  gathers  is 
itself  a  witness  against  the  miser,  for  rust  is 
the  proof  of  unused  coin  :  and  he  also  says 
that  this  rust  acts  as  a  canker  and  eats  the  flesh 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  HIS  PEOPLE.    13I 

of  its  possessor  as  it  were  with  fire.  This  is 
very  remarkable  language.  It  teaches  us 
that  the  hoarding  of  money  shall  itself  wit- 
ness against  its  possessor  and  become  a  means 
of  the  torture  of  such  possessor.  Buried 
capital  is  something  for  which  men  must 
give  account.  If  we  knew  the  fact,  happi- 
ness becomes  impossible  to  him  who  does 
not  make  proper  use  of  the  gifts  of  God. 
When  Butler,  the  author  of  the  "  Analogy  " 
went  into  close  retirement  in  the  little  country 
parish  of  Stanhope,  Queen  Caroline,  the  Con- 
sort of  George  IV.,  asked  the  Bishop  of  Black- 
burn if  Mr.  Butler  were  dead.  "  No,  Madam," 
he  said,  "7tot  dead,  but  buried.'"  And  the  same 
thing  might  be  said  of  many  men  who  hold 
property.  As  property-holders  they  may  not 
be  dead,  but  they  are  buried  and  their 
property  with  them. 

What  a  blessing  would  come  to  the  Church 
and  the  world,  if  rich  men  could  learn  to  say, 
as  Lowell  used  to  say  in  college,  that  "  one 
could  spare  the  necessities  but  not  the  luxu- 
ries of  life  ;  "  and  if  they  were  more  willing 
to  spare  themselves  the  bread  and  like  neces- 
sities which  are  the  support  of  physical  life, 
than  to  forego  the  luxury  of  imparting  bless- 
ing to  those  less  favored   than  themselves. 


132      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

This  instruction  on  the  subject  of  beneficence 
must  begin  with  children,  line  upon  line, 
precept  upon  precept,  here  a  little  and  there 
a  little.  Just  as  the  twig  is  bent  the  tree  is 
inclined.  Those  who  understand  botany 
know  that  if  you  take  out  from  a  branch  a 
scion  whose  natural  tendency  is  upward, 
cut  off  the  branch  and  set  the  scion  down- 
ward, all  others  that  grow  out  of  that  branch 
afterward  will  grow  downward.  If  we  can 
set  the  scion  in  the  branches  of  a  young  life 
with  a  Godward  tendency,  all  the  develop- 
ments of  the  future  growth  will  be  in  the 
same  direction. 

Secondly,  as  a  leader.  We  refer  here 
to  the  necessary  prominence  of  the  min- 
ister of  Christ  as  the  organizer  of  the  benefi- 
cence of  his  people.  In  this  matter  Ne- 
hemiah  should  be  his  great  model.  The 
book  of  Nehemiah  seems  to  be  inserted  in 
the  Old  Testament  canon  largely  as  a 
spiritual  and  scriptural  lesson  on  the  devel- 
opment of  Church  life.  The  intent  study 
of  this  book  will  show  that  the  four  princi- 
ples which  regulated  Nchcmiah's  successful 
activity,  as  the  restorer  of  the  city  of  Jeru- 
salem and  its  government,  were,  first,  thor- 
ough organization  ;  second,    division  of  la- 


THE  PREACHER  AMOMG  HIS  PEOPLE.    13:^ 

bor;  third,  co-operation  between  all  laborers 
and,  fourth,  concentration  at  any  assaulted 
point.  In  other  words  he  strove  to  bring 
every  individual  into  the  general  plan  of  la- 
bor;  to  give  each  individual  such  sort  and 
measure  of  labor  as  he  or  she  might  be  able 
to  perform  ;  to  make  them  all  participate  in 
a  work  that  was  one  work  ;  and  to  repel  the 
adversaries  of  the  work  from  any  point  of 
assault  by  gathering  all  the  workers  into 
force  at  the  imperiled  point  in  the  wall. 
We  know  no  addition  possible  to  the  wis- 
dom of  such  a  course,  in  developing  the 
systematic  activity  of  a  Church  on  benevo- 
lent lines.  The  pastor  must  aim  at  a  work 
large  enough  and  varied  enough  to  adapt  it- 
self to  each  individual  member.  He  wants 
to  secure  such  unity  of  work  as  that  all  shall 
feel  themselves  to  be  fellow-helpers  to  one 
great  end.  He  must  seek  to  divide  the  la- 
bor so  that  each  shall  have  such  work  as  is 
adapted  to  him  or  to  her,  and  he  must  teach 
all  to  lay  aside  their  particular  work  and  con- 
centrate their  efforts  in  any  direction  where 
there  is  a  special  emergency  or  perfl. 

A  great  lack  in  our  church  life  is  a  lack  of 
such  complete  organization.  We  knew  well 
a  prominent  pastor   in  one  of  the  Western 


T  3  4      THE  DI  VINE  ART  OE  PRE  A  CHING. 

cities  who  was  perpetual!)^  urging  his  people 
to  engage  in  beneficent  activities,  but  who 
was  so  utterly  deficent  in  devising  and 
dividing  labor  that,  when  approached  after 
his  own  discourses  by  those  who  were  ready 
to  engage  in  work  for  Christ,  he  was  abso- 
lutely unable  to  direct  them  in  what  way 
to  bestow  their  activities.  Fortunately  the 
economy  of  all  well-organized  churches  does 
not  leave  the  pastor  to  do  this  work  of 
organization  alone.  He  has  his  eldership, 
or  his  board  of  deacons,  or  his  committee- 
men, to  assist  him  in  the  forming  and  perfect- 
ing of  this  mechanism  of  church  activity,  and 
he  should  associate  with  himself  the  largest 
number  of  wise,  sagacious,  active  men  and 
women  in  the  congregation  as  the  pastor's 
working  council.  They  should  with  him 
develop  modes  of  activity,  and  apportion 
work  to  every  man,  woman,  and  child  will- 
ing to  engage  in  it.  I  have  found  it  of 
great  personal  value  to  me,  in  the  pastorate 
of  American  churches,  to  unite  the  trus- 
tees, elders,  and  deacons  in  such  a  pastor's 
council,  and  with  them  to  mature  the  methods 
of  work  to  be  recommended  to  the  congrega- 
tion for  their  adoption.  Such  a  plan  has  a 
higher  value  in  this,  that   each   member  of 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  HIS  PEOPLE.    I35 

such  a  board  of  councilors  represents  a  coterie 
of  personal  friends  and  acquaintances  in  the 
congregation,  over  whom  he  has  more  or 
less  influence,  and  whom  he  can  induce  per- 
sonally to  take  part  in  the  organized  work 
of  the  congregation. 

Third,  as  a  pleader.  We  mean  that 
the  pastor  who  thus  teaches  and  leads  the 
work  of  his  congregation  must  not  hesitate 
at  a  persistent,  constant,  and  bold  advocacy 
of  the  duty  and  privilege  of  engaging  in 
habitual  beneficence.  He  must  perpetually 
emphasize  the  fact  that  the  law  of  all  noble 
living  is  the  law  of  unselfishness,  that  we 
must  do  good  for  the  sake  of  doing  good, 
and  not  even  for  the  sake  of  its  returns  to 
us  personally.  We  have  fallen  upon  a  day 
of  universal  patent  automatic  sweetmeat 
machines,  which  guarantee  to  return  a 
package  of  sweets  for  every  penny  put  in 
the  slot,  and  their  influence  seems  to  be 
perceptible  in  our  Church  life.  We  have 
heard  of  a  little  fellow  who,  on  putting  a 
penny  in  the  offertory  box  on  Sunday  asked 
his  mother  which  she  thought  would  come 
out,  chocolate  or  caramels.  We  shall  never 
have  well-developed  beneficence  in  our 
churches     until     we     get     the     sweetmeat 


136      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

machines  out  of  our  thought;  and  nothing 
will  impress  the  true  law  of  unselfishness  in 
beneficence,  but  a  bold  and  constant  advo- 
cacy of  ev^ery  form  of  benevolent  work.  The 
pastor  must  insist  that  the  church  doors  shall 
swing  open  for  all  benevolent  enterprise  ; 
and  that  all  waters  which  carry  healing  and 
help  to  humanity  shall  find  a  channel  for 
their  stream  through  the  house  of  God.  He 
must  not  be  afraid  of  the  efTect  of  such  in- 
sistence and  persistence.  The  historian 
Froude,  for  his  singularly  bold  treatment  of 
historic  questions,  has  had  attached  to  him 
a  new  word,  Froud-acity.  We  should  be 
glad  to  see  every  pastor  deserving  some 
such  descriptive  title,  in  view  of  the  cour- 
ageous perseverance  with  which  he  educates 
his  people  in  benevolent  activity.  He 
may  seem  to  be  a  beggar,  but  he  will  lose, 
with  all  noble-minded  people,  no  prestige 
on  this  account.  A  church  is  perverted 
from  its  purposes  the  moment  it  becomes  a 
religious  clubhouse.  Whatever  purposes 
the  church  may  answer  as  a  home  for  disci- 
ples, as  a  place  of  worship,  or  even  as  a 
school,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  it  is 
primarily  a  rallying-point  in  order  that  it 
may  be    a    radiating-point.     A   pastor  who 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  HIS  PEOPLE.    I37 

does  his  duty  in  this  respect  may  at  least 
compel  some  of  his  church  members  to  say, 
like  the  man  who  was  asked  whether  he 
was  afraid  to  die,  "  No,  I  am  not  afraid  to 
die,  but  I  am  ashamed  to  die." 

Fourth.  After  all  we  must  emphasize, 
most  of  all,  the  fourth  and  last  consideration 
which  we  present.  The  relation  of  the  pastor 
to  the  beneficence  of  his  church  is  most  vital 
in  its  relation  to  personal  character  as  an  ex- 
emplar. Herbert  Spencer  says  that  by  no 
political  alchemy  can  you  get  golden  con- 
duct out  of  leaden  instincts,  and  I  think  it 
was  Epictetus  who  said  of  some  in  his  day 
that,  while  their  vessels  were  silvern  and 
golden,  their  principles  and  practices  were 
the  commonest  sort  of  earthenware.  If  the 
pastor  himself  is  constantly  nearing  the 
Divine  perihelion,  his  very  face  will  shine 
with  the  beauty  of  the  reflected  light,  and 
his  contact  with  his  people  will  be  somewhat 
like  the  contact  of  Burke  even  with  complete 
strangers.  It  used  to  be  said  of  him  that  so 
great  and  extraordinary  was  his  mind,  and  so 
remarkable  his  whole  character,  that  no  sub- 
ject came  under  discussion  which  he  could 
not  treat  in  so  masterly  and  technical  a 
manner  as  to  induce  such  as  heard  him  to 


13S      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

imagine  that  he  had  dedicated  a  considerable 
portion  of  his  life  to  the  consideration  of 
that  particular  subject.  If  he  was  not  the 
most  accomplished  orator,  he  was,  at  any 
rate,  the  most  eloquent  man  of  his  day,  and 
perhaps,  second  to  none  in  any  age.  No 
person  of  sense  could  meet  him  under  a 
gateway  to  avoid  a  shower  wlio  did  not  go 
away  convinced  that  he  had  met  the  first 
man  in  England,  whoever  he  might  be. 

The  pastor  must  show,  himself  a  man. 
That  is  the  first  condition  of  influence  as  a 
minister  of  Christ.  It  behoves  him  to  take 
heed  to  his  doctrine  and  to  his  deportment, 
but  above  all  to  take  heed  to  Jiimsclf.  A  man 
who  is  radically  greedy  and  stingy  and 
selfish  can  never,  for  a  long  time,  influence 
a  congregation  in  the  lines  of  beneficent 
activity.  There  is  a  contagion  about  self- 
denial,  and  there  is  an  infection  in  selfishness 
likewise.  It  is  not  necessary  that  a  pastor 
should  announce  his  gifts.  He  may  not  let 
his  left  hand  know  what  his  right  hand  does, 
but  there  is  an  atmosphere  which  accom- 
panies a  radically  generous  and  unselfish 
soul  that  reveals  itself,  like  the  fragrance 
of  a  flower,  by  invisible  but  still  sensible 
methods  ;  and  a  man  in  the  pulpit  who  not 


THE  PREACHER  AMONG  HIS  PEOPLE.    139 

only  advocates  giving  but  gives,  not  only 
preaches  but  practices  benevolence,  not  only 
inculcates  beneficent  activity  but  himself 
illustrates  it,  is  the  man  who,  though  it  may 
take  time,  will  develop  a  generation  of 
liberal  souls  ;  and  the  outcome  of  such  a 
man's  ministry  is  sure  to  be  a  people  who 
give — give  habitually,  and  give  from  the 
very  love  of  giving,  and  who  regard  benefi- 
cence as  the  inevitable  outcome  of  all  true 
and  consecrated  living. 


CPIAPTER  XIII. 

THE    PREACHER    COMMUNING   WITH   THE 
SPIRIT. 


CONCLUDE  the  discussion  of  this 
theme  by  some  thouglits  on  what, 
^  for  want  of  a  better  title,  I  call 
"spiritual  homiletics."  A  sermon  is  plainly 
a  product,  not  of  the  mind  of  man,  only, 
but  of  the  mind  of  man  in  contact  with 
the  Spirit  of  God  and  the  truth  of  God. 
In  I  Cor.  ii.  Paul  gives  some  most 
valuable  and  important  hints  on  the  sub- 
ject of  preaching.  We  are  there  taught 
that  the  natural  man — even  the  princeliest 
intellect  with  philosophical  wisdom — is  still 
incapable  of  receiving  the  things  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  because  they  are  spiritually 
discerned  ;  but  Paul  adds,  "  Wo  have  re- 
ceived the  Spirit  which  is  of  God  that 
we  may  know  the  things  that  are  freely 
given  to  us  of  God  ;  which  things  also 
we  speak,  not  in  the  words  which  man's 
140 


COMMUNING   WITH   THE  SPIRIT.        141 

wisdom  teacheth,  but  which  the  Holy  Ghost 
teacheth,  comparing  spiritual  things  with 
spiritual  "—which  latter  phrase  may  be 
interpreted  to  mean,  expressing  spiritual 
conceptions  in  spiritual  terms,  or  inter- 
preting spiritual  truths  to  spiritual  facul- 
ties. 

This  was  undoubtedly  written  with  regard 
to  the  production  of  inspired  writings,  and 
as  such  has  been  considered  ;  but  the  prin- 
ciple  here  set  down  is  fundamental  to  the 
production  of  a  proper  sermon,  and  upon  this 
subject  it  may  be  well  to  expatiate. 

The  most  attractive  and  effective 
preachers  have  exemplified  seven  great 
secrets  of  power : 

I.  Simplicity  of  treatment.  2.  Close  ad- 
herence to  the  text.  3.  Full  presentation 
of  the  truth— the  sword  of  the  truth  is  two- 
edged  :  it  has  an  edge  of  law  and  an  edge  of 
grace,  and  they  combine  to  make  it  power- 
ful. 4.  Enforcement  of  supernatural  truth 
by  the  analogies  of  natural  law.  5.  Use  of 
illustrations,  apt  and  telling.  6.  Constant 
progress  toward  a  climax.  7.  The  tone  of 
deep  spirituality,  which  again  involves— first, 
a  thorough  conviction  on  the  part  of  the 
speaker,  and  therefore  secondly,  a    certain 


1 4  2       THE  DI I  ^INE  A  R  T  OF  PRE  A  CHING. 

positiveness  born  of  conviction,  not  Yea 
and  Nay,  but  Yea ;  preaching  not  defensive, 
but  offensive  ;  not  destructive  of  error  only, 
but  constructive  of  the  truth,  consisting  not 
of  negations,  but  of  positions. 

Spiritual  preaching  should  go  beyond  all 
these,  and  exhibit  a  higher  and  subtler 
quality.  The  Holy  Scriptures  are  an  in- 
spired book,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  who 
inspired  them,  is  the  indwelling  Spirit  in  the 
believer.  All  true  insight  into  the  Book 
hangs  on  the  unveiling  of  the  eyes  to  be- 
hold wondrous  things  in  the  Word.  From 
these  premises  it  follows  that  the  supreme 
help  in  the  preparation  of  sermons  is  a 
prayerful,  humble,  devout  meditation  on  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  by  which  the  spiritual  eye 
shall  be  unveiled  and  these  wondrous  things 
revealed.  Moreover,  every  text  of  Scripture 
is  a  divine  gem,  and  it  is  a  gem  which  is  cut 
into  facets  upon  the  wheel  of  the  Spirit. 
As  we  need,  therefore,  to  turn  a  piece  of 
spar  around  in  order  to  get  the  angle  at 
which  it  reveals  its  beautiful  colors,  and,  as 
a  diamond  with  many  facets  must  be  seen 
at  every  angle  to  appreciate  its  brilliance, 
so  a  text  of  Scripture  must  be  turned  about 
in  the  process  of  meditation,  and  looked  at 


COMMUNING  WITH  THE  SPIRIT.       143 

from  every  point  of  view,  before  its  wonder- 
ful radiance  is  fully  perceived.  The  most 
effective  and  spiritual  preachers  have  there- 
fore found  that  immersion  in  the  Scriptures, 
ivith  dependeiice  upon  the  Spirit,  alike  for 
instruction  and  unction,  has  been  the  secret 
of  their  highest  pulpit  power.  And  so,  as  the 
Rev.  John  McNeil  says, "  The  true  preacher 
prays  and  meditates  on  the  Scriptures  tintil 
he  lias  a  vision^  and  we  may  add,  he  never 
preaches  until  he  gets  the  vision. 

For  myself,  I  feel  constrained  to  bear  my 
witness  that  no  amount  of  study  of  com- 
mentaries, or  of  any  other  form  of  human 
product,  has  been  of  such  help  as  the 
spiritual,  devotional  study  of  the  Scriptures 
in  the  original  tongues,  carefully  noting 
every  word  and  phrase,  case  and  noun, 
mood  and  tense  and  number  and  person  of  a 
verb,  and  the  relation  of  clauses  and  phrases 
and  words  to  each  other.  Prayer  for  in- 
sight into  the  Scriptures,  and  a  supreme 
regard  for  the  mind  of  the  Spirit,  will  lead 
to  a  comparative  indifference  as  to  mere 
literary  standards,  or  so-called  "  homiletic" 
completeness,  and  will  tend  to  raise  one 
above  the  atmosphere  of  criticism. 

The  highest  kind  of  homiletic  analysis  is 


144      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHIXG. 

not  an  invention,  but  a  discovery;  not  the 
product  of  intellectual  ingenuity,  but  the 
result  of  spiritual  illumination.  Therefore 
preachers  should  covet  earnestly  the  best 
gifts.  As  has  been  said:  •* There  is  an  in- 
tellectual covetousness  abroad,  a  haste  to  be 
wise,  which,  like  the  haste  to  be  rich,  leads 
men  to  speculate  upon  indifferent  securities; 
and  theology  must  not  be  bound  up  witli 
such  speculations." 

I  venture  to  give  a  few  examples  of  the 
effect  of  such  personal  and  prayerful  medi- 
tation upon  the  Holy  Scriptures,  though  it 
is  quite  possible  that  I  may  not  select  the 
best  illustrations  which  further  thought 
might  bring  to  my  mind. 

One  example,  already  referred  to,  is 
found  in  Genesis  xlii.  21:  "  We  are  verily 
guilty  concerning  our  brother,  in  that  we 
saw  the  anguish  of  his  soul  when  he  be- 
sought us  and  we  would  not  hear  ;  therefore 
is  this  distress  come  upon  us,"  Careful 
meditation  will  show  here  the  threefold 
basis  of  natural  retribution  : 

I.  Memory  :  "  We  saw  the  anguish  of  his 
soul  when  he  besought  us  and  we  would  not 
hear."  2.  Conscience :  "  We  are  verily 
guilty    concerning    our    brother."     3.    Rea- 


COMMUNING  WITH  THE  SPIRIT.       145 

son  :  "  Therefore  is  this  distress  come  upon 
us." 

In  Romans,  first  and  second  chapters, 
there  will  be  found  hints  of  a  fourfold  reve- 
lation :  I.  Of  God,  from  creation.  2.  Of 
Law,  in  the  conscience  of  man.  3.  Of 
Wrath,  in  history,  individual  and  collective. 
4.  Of  Righteousness,  in  the  gospel. 

Take  another  example  :  Our  Lord's  inter- 
cessory prayer  (John  xvii).  A  careful  study 
will  show  that  there  are  four  forms  of  prepo- 
sitions here  which  reveal  our  Lord's  concep- 
tion of  theVelation  of  believers  to  the  world  : 

1.  They  are  in  the  world.  2.  They  are  not 
of  the  world.  3.  They  are  chosen  out  of 
the  world.  4.  They  are  sent  into  the 
world.  These  four  prepositional  forms  leave 
nothing  more  to  be  said.  In  this  chapter 
also  we  shall  find  a  progress  of  doctrine  that 
does  not  at  first  reveal  itself  :i.  Separation. 

2.  Sanctity.  3.  Unity.  4.  Glory.  Noth- 
ing can  be  added,  nothing  can  be  subtracted  ; 
neither  can  the  order  of  these  four  be 
changed  without  damage. 

John  iii.  16  is  a  most  familiar  passage  of 
Scripture:  "God  so  loved  the  world  that 
He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that  who- 
soever believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish. 


146      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

but  have  everlasting  life."  I  am  sure  that  I 
had  preached  upon  this  text  fifty  times,  be- 
fore I  ever  discovered  the  relation  of  the 
different  words  which  compose  this  verse. 
After  a  prolonged  meditation  upon  it,  it 
suddenly  occurred  to  my  mind  that  there 
are  in  this  text  ten  prominent  words:  God — 
Loved — World — Gave — Son — Whosoever — 
Belie  veth — Perish — Have — Life. 

On  further  meditation  it  also  occurred  to 
me,  as  by  a  flash  of  illumination,  that  these 
ten  words  naturally  divide  themselves  into 
jive  groups  oj  tzi'o  each. 

I.  There  arc  two  words  that  have  to  do 
with  the  persons  of  the  Godhead :  God  the 
Father  and  God  the  Son. 

2  There  are  two  that  describe  the  Divine 
attitude:  "Loved  "  and  "Gave." 

3  There  are  two  that  describe  the  ohjeets 
of  this  love:  "World  "  and  "Whosoever." 
Both  of  them  universal  terms,  but  one  col- 
lective and  the  other  distributive. 

4.  There  are  two  that  intimate  man's 
activity  :  "Believe"  and  "  Have." 

5.  There  are  two  that  represent  the  ex- 
tremes of  destiny  :  "  Perish  "  and  "  Life." 

No  one  will  say  that  this  is  an  invention. 
These  words  were  there,  and   sustained  this 


COMMUNING   WITH  THE  SPIRIT.        I47 

relation,  though  it  might  have  been  pre- 
viously undiscovered  by  any  other  reader. 

We  might  venture  another  illustration 
from  Psalm  li.,  where  a  series  of  adjectives 
may  be  found  which  carry  our  thoughts 
higher  and  higher  till  we  reach  a  climax  : 
Clean — Right — Holy — Free. 

There  are  manifestly  four  levels  of  life  : 
I.  Sin  ;  2.  Righteousness,  or  obedience  to 
conscience ;  3.  Holiness,  or  the  love  of 
right  for  its  own  sake,  and  from  sympathy 
with  God.  4.  Freedom,  or  the  sense  of 
privilege  in  doing  and  suffering  the  will  of 
God,  rising  above  law  and  duty  to  love  and 
liberty  and  joy. 

Again,  in  Rom.  viii.  we  have  a  marvel- 
ous combination  and  crystallization  of 
truths  which  centralize  about  the  concep- 
tion oi  the  privileges  of  God's  sons.  There 
are  ten  prominent  thoughts  which  may  be 
divided  into  two  classes  :  First,  those  which 
pertain  to  child-life  ;  and  second,  those 
which  pertain  to  family-life,  or  the  position 
of  the  child  in  the  family. 

First,  as  to  child-life,  we  have  life  itself ; 
ivalking,  talking,  access  to  God  in  prayer, 
and  adoption  {adoptio,  Latin)  or  the  attain- 
ment   of   majority.      Second  as   to  family- 


148      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

life:  First,  heredity,  implying,  of  course, 
conformity  to  the  Father's  Hkeness;  sec- 
ond, harmony,  or  the  convergence  of  all 
household  provision  in  the  well-being  of 
each  member;  third,  discipline,  including 
education  and  correction  ;  fourth,  liberty, 
or  a  growth  toward  freedom  from  restraint ; 
fifth,  heirship,  or  the  final  inheritance  in 
God.  The  student  of  this  chapter  finds 
these  things  here  awaiting  discovery. 

These,  however  imperfect  as  illustrations, 
will  serve  perhaps  at  least  to  show  the  mean- 
ing of  what  has  been  said.  It  will  be  ob- 
served that,  wherever  this  method  of  pre- 
paring sermons  is  followed,  there  comes  to 
be  an  element  in  the  product  essentially 
original  and  individual,  for  the  humblest  be- 
liever may  strike  upon  some  beauty  in 
thought,  or  in  its  relations,  or  both,  which 
has  hitherto  been  unveiled  to  no  other  be- 
liever. Hence  there  enters  into  preaching 
of  this  sort  a  peculiar  personal  element, 
which  reminds  us  again  of  Buffon's  fine  defi- 
nition of  style;  such  preaching  incarnates 
the  preacher;  the  man  with  all  his  spiritual 
knowledge,  habits,  attainments,  enters 
vitally  into  every  sermon  constructed  upon 
this  pattern.     Moreover,  the  degree  of  per- 


COMMUNING   WITH  THE  SPIRIT.        1 49 

sonal  attainment  in  holiness  and  in  sym- 
pathy to  God  will  have  much  to  do  with 
the  clearness  of  apprehension,  as  well  as  the 
effective  presentation,  of  spiritual  truth.  A 
man  who  lingers  in  the  atmosphere  of  the 
secret  place  of  communion,  and  obtains 
there  his  insight  into  the  Scriptures,  will 
carry  that  atmosphere  with  him  into  his 
pulpit — a  tone  of  personal  sympathy  with 
God,  than  which  nothing  is  more  important. 
There  will  also  be  personal  sympathy 
between  himself  and  the  souls  to  whom  he 
preaches,  because  of  the  unveiling  to  him  of 
human  need,  in  the  unveiling  of  his  own. 
As  the  high  priest  bore  in  two  places  the 
names  of  the  children  of  Israel — upon  the 
onyx  stones  which  clasped  the  two  parts  of 
the  ephod  over  his  shoulders,  and  on  the 
breastplate  upon  his  bosom — a  true  preacher 
will  bear  his  hearers  on  his  shoulders  in  sup- 
porting their  burdens,  and  on  his  bosom  in 
his  cherishing  love  for  their  souls  ;  and,  as 
there  will  be  personal  sympathy  by  contact 
with  the  hearer,  so  there  will  be  a  still  higher 
personal  sympathy  by  contact  with  God. 
He  Vv^ill  become  an  ambassador  representing 
God  in  a  human  court,  and  because  he  speaks 
and  acts  within  the  limits  of  his  instructions 


15°      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

he  will  be  conscious  that  his  words  carry  the 
weight  and  the  authority  of  the  government 
which  he  represents.  He  will  speak  as  be- 
comes the  oracles  of  God. 

I  confess  that  I  feel  the  greatest  solicitude 
for  a  revival  of  this  kind  of  preaching  in  the 
modern  pulpit.  There  is  too  much  of  the 
essay,  or  oration,  or  lecture  style  in  modern 
discourse  ;  there  is  too  little  of  the  conscious 
identification  of  the  preacher  with  God. 

To  get  one's  sermons,  themes,  and  treat- 
ment from  the  illumining  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  will  beget  a  marvelous  intrepidity. 
Such  a  preacher  is  bound  to  speak  God's 
truth.  As  Seneca's  pilot  said  to  Neptune, 
he  will  say: 

"  You  may  sink  me  or  you  may  save  me, 
But  I  will  hold  my  rudder  true  ;  " 

or,  as  Curran,  in  his  defense  of  Bond,  when  he 
heard  the  clatter  of  the  arms  of  his  threaten- 
ing antagonists  in  the  court,  said  :  "  You 
may  assassinate  me,  but  you  cannot  intimi- 
date me."  Before  whatever  human  presence 
such  a  preacher  may  be  called  to  speak,  his 
whole  being  will  be  so  absorbed  in  that 
greater  Unseen  Presence,  that  the  dignitaries 
of  earth  will  become  as  nothing. 


COMMUNING  WITH  THE  SPIRIT.        15 1 

Such  a  preacher  will  be  likely  to  be  a  man 
of  exceptional  personal  purity.  The  mind, 
which  is  the  channel  of  the  Holy  Ghost's 
inflowing,  and  the  tongue,  which  is  the  chan- 
nel of  the  Holy  Ghost's  outflowing,  will  not 
be  likely  to  be  given  over  to  the  control  of 
impure  thoughts,  or  even  the  coarse  and 
gross  forms  of  jesting  in  speech. 

Such  preaching  is  born  only  of  prayer.  It 
has,  like  General  Gordon,  its  morning  signal. 
It  is  told  of  him  that,  during  his  sojourn  in 
the  Soudan  country,  each  morning  for  half  an 
hour  there  lay  outside  his  tent  a  white 
handkerchief.  The  whole  camp  knew  what 
it  meant,  and  treated  the  little  signal  with 
the  highest  respect.  No  foot  crossed  the 
threshold  while  that  little  guard  kept  Avatch. 
The  most  pressing  message  waited  for 
delivery,  and  even  matters  of  life  and  death, 
until  the  little  signal  was  withdrawn.  God 
and  Gordon  were  in  communion.  The  man 
that  wants  to  preach  with  power  must  have 
his  times  alone  with  God.  If  he  wants  to  be 
a  distributing  reservoir,  he  must  become  a 
receiving  reservoir.  If  he  wants  to  prevail 
with  man,  he  must  learn,  first  of  all,  to  prevail 
with  God. 

Such    preachers  will    be    found  to   be  full 


152       THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

of  a  Divine  energy.  They  will  not  count 
their  life  dear  unto  themselves.  Their 
love  will  seek,  not  limits,  or  even  inlets,  but 
outlets,  and  they  will  renew  their  strength 
in  waiting  upon  God.  Oh,  for  a  new  era  of 
preaching  that  is  biblical  in  the  highest  sense, 
and  spiritual  in  the  grandest  sense,  because 
not  only  identified  with  a  spiritual  character 
and  life,  but  because  it  is  essentially  a 
spiritual  product — a  product  of  the  Holy 
Spirit's  indwelling  and  outworking  ! 

The  modern  pulpit  may  not  lack  intel- 
lectuality, nor  learning,  nor  culture,  nor 
eloquence.  But  it  does  lack  spiritual  power. 
It  fails  to  grapple  with  the  mind  so  as  to 
compel  conviction,  with  the  conscience  so  as 
to  compel  contrition,  with  the  will  so  as  to 
compel  resolution.  The  power  that  melts 
men's  wills  into  God's  is  not  a  human  gift, 
but  a  Divine  grace.  For  such  power  we  must 
wait  before  Him  in  the  secret  place,  and  if 
we  are  to  pierce  to  the  dividing  asunder  of 
soul  and  spirit,  we  must  wait  until  He  makes 
our  quiver  full  of  arrows,  pointed  and  barbed 
by  the  Spirit  Himself.  No  time  will  be  lost 
for  preparation,  which  is  spent  in  that  first 
of  all  preparations — PRAYER.  This  is  the 
preparation   which   prepares.     All   spiritual 


COMMUNING  WITH  THE  SPIRIT.        153 

power  runs  back  for  its  source  and  fountain 
to  the  mercy  seat ! 

One  word  in  conclusion  as  to  the  inter- 
preting power  of  a  deep  and  godlike  ex- 
perience. The  spiritual  wealth  of  the  Word 
of  God  can  only  be  understood  by  one  who 
is  spiritually  enriched.  There  are  some 
things,  says  Dr.  Pardington,  which  a  deep 
and  devout  spiritual  life  alone  can  interpret. 
Voltaire  attempted  to  versify  the  fifty-first 
Psalm.  He  succeeded  fairly  until  he  came 
to  the  tenth  verse,  "Create  in  me  a  clean 
heart,  O  God !  and  renew  a  right  spirit 
within  me."  His  self-righteousness  and  en- 
mity to  God  forbade  his  saying  that.  He 
struggled  to  put  it  into  verse,  but  could  not. 
The  fear  of  God  seized  him,  his  pen  refused 
to  move,  he  sought  to  leave  his  study  but 
could  not ;  he  fell  on  his  couch  in  great  men- 
tal suffering,  and  he  subsequently  said  to  a 
friend,  "  I  can  never  think  of  that  hour 
without  great  terror."  How  true  it  is  that  the 
natural  man  perceives  not  the  things  of  the 
Spirit  of  God.  A  discernment  of  spiritual 
things  is  impossible  except  through  a 
quickening  of  the  spiritual  senses  by  the 
Holy  Ghost.  Then  we  find  the  Psalms  and 
all  other  portions  of  the  Word  of  God  to 


154      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  PREACHING. 

be  a  vehicle  of  divine  truth.  The  heart  is 
prompted  to  prayer  for  celestial  cleansing. 
The  man  enters  upon  the  heritage  of 
righteousness,  sanctification,  and  becomes 
the  means  of  divine  power  on  the  souls  of 
others. 

I  have  seen  in  a  recent  copy  of  an  Amer- 
ican paper  the  following  letter  received  re- 
cently by  a  young  minister  from  one  of 
his  hearers  upon  the  occasion  of  an  ex- 
change with  another  pastor,  and  it  teaches 
how  much  of  the  prevailing  indifference  to 
the  gospel  on  the  part  of  men  may  be  as- 
cribed to  the  fact  that  pointless  essays  are 
too  often  substituted  for  gospel  sermons. 
Let  me  add  here  this  letter,  with  the  hope 
that  God  will  bless  the  rebuke  which  it  con- 
tains to  every  one  of  us. 

"Reverend  l^rothcr :  I  listened  very  at- 
tentively to  your  clever  essay  on  history  this 
morning,  and  hoped  to  find  some  features 
of  a  gospel  sermon.  Was  it  my  fault 
that  I  did  not  find  or  detect  anything  in 
it  :  first,  to  convict  men  of  sin  ;  second, 
to  conduct  the  penitent  to  Christ ;  third,  to 
quicken  the  backslider  ;  fourth,  to  comfort 
the  afflicted;  fifth,  to  guide  the  perplexed; 
sixth,   to    encourage   the  desponding;    sev- 


COMMUiYING  WITH  THE  SPIRIT.        155 

enth,  to  caution  the  unwary;  eighth,  to  re- 
move doubt,  ninth,  to  stimulate  zeal ; 
tenth,  to  fortify  patience  ;  eleventh,  to 
arouse  aspirations ;  twelfth,  to  kindle  devo- 
tion ;  thirteenth,  to  expose  the  wiles  of  the 
devil,  fourteenth,  to  broaden  charity;  fif- 
teenth, to  develop  faith  ;  sixteenth,  to  in- 
struct  in  any  of  the  practical  duties  of  Chris- 
tian life;  or  finally,  to  impart  information 
needed  for  practical  utilization  in  Christian 
life.  You  may  reply,  I  did  not  design  to 
do  any  of  these  things.  But,  my  brother, 
as  a  Christian  minister  and  not  as  a  literary 
essayist,  can  you  afford  to  misuse  any  such 
occasion  by  not  designing  to  do  some  of 
these  things?  You  are  a  minister  of  the 
Word,  which  is  to  make  the  man  of  God 
perfect,  thoroughly  furnished  unto  all  good 
works.  Pardon  these  kindly  suggestions 
from  one,  who,  tired  of  business,  goes  to 
Church  to  be  helped." 

In  the  foregoing  pages,  it  has  been  the 
author's  aim  simply  to  throw  out  hints  on 
the  greatest  of  themes  and  of  duties. 

If  completeness  is  looked  for  here,  it  will 
not  be  found,  for  it  has  not  even  been  at- 
tempted.    A  vast  continent  of  thought  can- 


156      THE  DIVINE  ART  OF  r REACHING. 

not  be  covered  within  such  limits:  it  can 
scarcely  be  outlined.  But  these  few  frag- 
mentary suggestions  represent  the  outcome 
of  an  experience  of  thirty  years,  and  many 
of  these  lessons  were  learned  in  the  sad 
school  of  failure.  IMay  m}'  brethren,  before 
whom  life's  untrodden  paths  yet  lie,  be 
graciously  kept  from  the  blunders  and  the 
blindness  that  have  characterized  the  course 
of  too  many  who  have  gone  before  them  ; 
and  may  the  Spirit  of  God,  with  His  fullness, 
qualify  them  as  only  He  can  for  the  faith- 
ful ministry  of  the  Word,  and 

The  Divine  Art  of  Preaching  ! 


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( Chicago. ) 

CUYLER— POINTED  PAPERS  FOR  THE  CHRISTIAN 
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terian. 

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CUYLER— HOW  TO  BE  A  PASTOR.  By  Theodore  L. 
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gelist. 

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Mich,  Christian  Advocate, 


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DEUTSCH     LETTERS      FOR      SELF-INSTRUCTION     IN 
THE     GERMAN     LANGUAGE.       By     Solomon     Deutm  h, 

Ph.D.     2  vols.,   8vo,    cloth $5.00. 

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This  is  an  elaborate  work  which  perfectly  accomplishes  the  task  ol 
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DEUTSCH -DRILLMASTER      IN      GERMAN.        Based  on 

Systematic  (iradation  ;ind  Steady  I\ei>ctition.  By  Solomon 
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page,  and  the  exact  idiomatic  Knglish  equivalent  on  the  right  page.  Kach  of 
these  sections  of  fifiv  paragraphs  is  followed  by  the  same  number  of  para- 
graphs in  Knglish,  containing  Drill  exercises  for  Oral  and  Written  Review. 
In  tnese  no  new  terms  are  employed,  but  merely  modifications  and  varia- 
tions of  the  sentences  alreaciv  given,  and  these  have  been  selected  with 
a  view  to  practical  usefulness.  The  grammatical  rules  deduced  from 
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foot-notes  and  in  the  appendix.  The  latter  also  contains  synoptical  tables, 
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point. 


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JONES— UNIVERSAL  INTEREST  TABLE.  Computed  by 
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boards 25  cts. 

These  carefully  prepared  tables  give  the  interest  on  all  sums  to  Ten 
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seconds.  It  also  contains  a  table  of  compound  interest,  and  one  showing  the 
interest  on  $1  to  thousandths  of  a  cent. 

LIGGINS— THE  GREAT  VALUE  AND  SUCCESS  OF 
FOREIGN  MISSIONS.  Proved  by  Distinguished  Wit- 
nesses. By  Rev.  John  Liggins,  with  an  introduction  by 
Rev.  Arthur  T.  Pierson,  D.D.  12  mo,  249  pages,  paper, 
35  cts. ;  cloth 75  cts. 

A  powerful  presentation  of  overwhelming  evidence  from  independent 
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contains  leading  facts  and  late  statistics  of  the  Missions. 

"The  distinguished  witnesses  are  well  chosen  and  are  unanswerable." 
—  Joseph  Cook,  the  Boston  Lecturer. 

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sions.' — CItristian  at   Work. 

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"  Solid  and  indisputable  facts." — Boston   IFatchiuan. 

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LOOMIS— MODERN  CITIES  AND  THEIR  RELIGIOUS 
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duction by   Rev.  Josiah  Strong,  D.D.     12  mo,  cloth.... $1  00 

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ume."— Re7'.  A.  F,  Schavffler,  D.D. 

MORELL— AN  HISTORICAL  AND  CRITICAL  VIEW 
OF  THE  SPECULATIVE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EU- 
ROPE IN  THE  NINETEENTH  CENTURY.  By  J. 
D.    RIorell.       8vo,    cloth,   752    pp $3  50 

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taken  rank  among  the  very  best  productions  of  the  age." — N.  Y.  Obsen>er, 


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NATIONAL  NEEDS  AND  REMEDIES.  The  Discussions 
of  the  General  Cliristian  Conference  lield  at  Boston,  Mass., 
Dec.  4-6,  1889,  under  the  auspices  and  direction  of  the  Evan- 
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cloth $1  50 

The  important  subject  of  causing,  by  means  of  inter-denominational 
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religious  world  which  we  have  been  permitted  to  chronicle  in  a  very  long 
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NATIONAL  PERILS  AND  OPPORTUNITIES.  The  Dis~ 
cussions  of  the  CJeneral  Christian  Conference  held  at  Washing- 
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Among  the  speakers  were:  Dr.  S.  J.  McPherson,  Dr.  Arthur  T.  Pier- 
son,  Fres.  James  W.  McCosh,  Bishop  Samuel  Harris,  Dr.  Josiah  Strong,  Dr. 
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discuss  them." — Christian  Union. 

PEET— COURSE  OF  INSTRUCTION  FOR  THE  DEAF 
AND  DUMB.  Part  i.  ELEMENTARY  LESSONS.  Hy 
IIakvey  r.  Pket,  LL.  D.  308  pages,  cK)th 90  cts. 

This  work  has  been  used  in  .American  and  foreign  institutions  for  the 
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for  the  instruction  of  hearing  children. 

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cloth §1  50 

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liur<-  idioiii.itii-  st vb'. 


I 

Catalogue  of  The  Baker  ^  Taylor  Co. 

PEET— LANGUAGE  LESSONS.  By  Isaac  Lewis  Tket, 
LL.    D.      Script  type,    232   pages,    cloth $125 

Desiji;ned  to  introduce  young  learners,  deaf-mutes  and  foreigners  to 
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forward  their  education. 

PIERSON— EVANGELISTIC  WORK  IN  PRINCIPLE 
AND  PRACTICE.  By  Rev.  Arthur  T.  Pierson,  D.D. 
16   mo,   paper,   35    cents;    cloth.... $1  25 

An  able  discussion  of  the  best  methods  of  evangelization  by  an  acknowl- 
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on  fire." — Spurgcon. 

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without  sliding  into  fanaticism." — Springjleld  Rcpuhlican. 

PIERSON— THE   DIVINE   ENTERPRISE  OF   MISSIONS. 

A  Series  of  Lectures  delivered  at  New  Brunswick,  N.  J., 
before  the  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Reformed  Church 
in  America  upon  the  "Graves"  Foundation  in  1891.  By 
Rev.  Arthur  T.  Pierson,  D.  D.     i6mo,  cloth,  gilt  top $1  25 

In  this  work  the  author  sets  forth  a  philosophy  of  the  History  of 
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in  the  utterances  of  the  Master  himself,  and  tests  the  quality  of  such  work 
by  its  adherance  to  or  departure  from  these  principles  as  laid  down  in  the 
infallible  Word.  He  treats  the  subject  under  the  Divine  Thought,  Plan, 
Work,  Spirit,  Force,  Fruit,  and  Challenge  of  Missions. 

"  They  breathe  throughout  the  fervent  spirit  which  has  made  Dr.  Pierson 
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in  pithy  illustrations  drawn  from  the  mission  field,  and  go  straignt  to  the 
mark.    They  deserve  a  wide  circulation  in  our  churches." — Christian  Utiimi. 

PIERSON— THE  ONE  GOSPEL  ;  OR  THE  COMBINATION 
OF  THE  NARRATIVES  OF  THE  FOUR  EVANGELISTS 
IN  ONE  COMPLETE  RECORD.  Edited  by  Rev.  Arthur  T. 
Pierson,  D.  D.  i2mo,  flexible  cloth,  red  edges,  75  cents  ;  limp 
morocco,  full  gilt $2  00 

Each  evangelist  furnishes  some  matter,  found,  if  at  all,  not  so  fully  in 
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in  their  study — a  commentary  wholly  biblical, whereby  the  the  reader  mav, 
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Catalogue  of  Tlie  Baker  &>  Taylor  Co. 

PIERSON-  THE  CRISIS  OF  MISSIONS;  OR,  THE  VOICE 
OUT  OF  THE  CLOUD.  Hy  the  Kcv.  Akhrr  T.  Pierson, 
U.D.       i6ino,   paper,  35  cents  ;  cloth $1  25 

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PIERSON— STUMBLING  STONES  REMOVED  FROM 
THE  WORD  OF  GOD.  By  Rev.  Arthur  T.  Tierson, 
D.  D.     i8mo,  cloth 50  cts. 

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PITMAN  MANUAL  OF  PHONOGRAPHY.      By  Benn   Pit- 

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PITMAN— PHONOGRAPHIC  READER.  By  Benn  Pitman, 
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PITMAN— REPORTER'S  COMPANION.  By  Benn  Pitman. 
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the   briefest    and  most    legible   manner. 


Catalogue  of  The  Baker  (Sf  Taylor  Co. 

RUSSELI ^NYLAT    JESUS     SAYS.      Being  an  arrangement 

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a  full  index.     By  Rev.  Frank  Russell,  D.  D.     i2mo,  cloth, $i  25 

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Michigan  University. 

RYLE— EXPOSITORY   THOUGHTS    ON  THE  GOSPELS. 

By  Rev.  J.  C.  Ryle.     7  vols.,  i2mo,  cloth  in  a  set $8  00 

Matthew,  i  vol.;  Mark,  i  vol.;  Luke,  2  vols.;  John,  3  vols.     Each 
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the  author  divides  the  text  of  sacred  Scripture  into  passages  of  about 
twelve  verses  each,  which,  taken  as  a  whole,  serves  as  a  basis  for  a  con- 
tinuous series  of  short,  plain  "Expositions."  To  this  method  he  adds, 
when  treating  the  Gospel  by  John,  the  verse  by  verse  exegesis.  'I'he 
practical  lessons  and  inferences  from  the  passages  given  are  followed 
by  notes  explanatory,  doctrinal  and  hortatory,  and  tne  views  of  other 
commentators  are  presented  from  time  to  time. 

"It  is  the  kernels  without  the  shells." — Christian  Union. 

"  It  has  a  sure  place  in  many  famlies  and  in  nearly  every  minister's 
1  ibrary." — Lutlicran   Obsc7-z>cr. 

'■The  work  of  a  ripe  scholar.  These  expository  thoughts  have  met  with 
the  heartiest  welcome  from  the  press  of  the  leading  Christian  denomina- 
tions in  this  country." — Inter- Ocean. 

SCOTT— THE  WAVERLEY  NOVELS,  By  Sir  Walter 
Scott.  Centenary  Edition.  In  25  vols.,  illustrated  with  158 
Steel  Plates,  and  containing  additional  Copyright  Notes  from 
the  author's  pen  not  hitherto  published,  besides  others  by  the 
editor,  the  late  David  Laing,  LL.D.  With  a  General  Lidex, 
and  separate  Indices  and  Glossaries.  Sold  only  in  sets.  121110, 
half  calf  extra,  $68.75;  ^^If  morocco,  $68.75  \  cloth  e.xtra,  gilt 
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"The  edition  is  an  admirable  one.  It  is  one  of  the  best  editions  avail- 
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STRONG— OUR  COUNTRY.  By  Rev.  JosiAii  Strong,  D.  D., 
with  an  introduction  by  Prof.  Austin  Phelps,  D.  D.  150th 
thousand,  enlarged  and  revised  with  reference  to  the  census 
of  1890.     i2mo,  paper,  30  cents ;  cloth 60  cts. 

This  revision  shows  the  changes  of  the  last  ten  years  and  pictures  the 
religious,  social  and  economic  condition  and  tendencies  of  our  country  to- 
day. The  present  edition  has  been  printed  from  entirely  new  plates,  and 
enlarged  Ly  the  addition  of  more  than  one-third  new  matter.  Diagrams 
have  also  been  employed  to  forcibly  illustrate  some  of  the  more  startling 
facts  and  comparisons.  In  its  new  form  it  adds  to  its  original  worth  the 
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census  to  the  discussion  of  tlie  great  questions  of  the  day. 

"This  book  has  already'  been  read  by  himdreds  of  thousands  of  our 
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handled,  we  again  commend  it  to  all  Christian  an<l  patriotic  American  Citi- 
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THWING— THE  WORKING  CHURCH.  By  Ch.vrles  F. 
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THOMPSON— SONGS  IN  THE  NIGHT  WATCHES. 
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way." — A/arg-iirf/  li.  Sangstcr. 

"Tlie  sweetest  songs  ever  sung  (his  side  of  llcaviii  " — SWllnivstoii  rns- 
lytcrian. 


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nwwA.—Neiv  York  JoKrnal  of  Cojiiincrcc. 

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—  ihc  Nation.  ' 

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President  of  Ctirators,  State  University,  Mick. 

VON  HOLST— THE  POLITICAL  AND  CONSTITUTION- 
AL HISTORY  OFTHE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA, 

By  Dr.  II.  Von  Holst.     Translated  from  the  German  by  John 
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Chronicle. 

WALTON~THE  COMPLEAT  ANGLER;  OR,  THE  CON- 
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